


Bump, Set, Spike

by Piggycats_be_mooing



Series: Haikyuu School Tour [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Bad Puns, Better Setter, Childhood Friends, Coach Irihata - Freeform, Coach Nekomata - Freeform, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I'm Bad At Tagging, Karasuno, King of The Court, Kozume Kenma & Kuroo Tetsurou Friendship, Libero Original Character, Libero Training, Light Angst, M/M, Matches, Moving, Mutual Pining, My First Work in This Fandom, Nekoma, No Beta, No beta reader, OC insert, OC is Iwaizumi's Cousin, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining Oikawa Tooru, Pining Original character(s), Pretty Setter Squad, Seijoh - Freeform, Shiratorizawa, Sports, Student Coach, Volleyball, Volleyball Dorks in Love, We Die Like Men, You Should Have Come to Shiratorizawa, libero, tagging is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:47:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 58
Words: 96,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24741778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piggycats_be_mooing/pseuds/Piggycats_be_mooing
Summary: (OC x OIKAWA)“I’m resigning from the Volleyball Club.”Yana Iwaizumi used to love playing volleyball, but not anymore. She joined a team  as soon as she was old enough to play competitively. Unfortunately, for better or for worse they were always in the top three strongest schools.After a sudden school transfer to Aoba Johsai she vowed to never have anything to do with the Volleyball Club or it's incredibly popular captain and main setter, Oikawa.That's a little hard to do, especially when your cousin is the vice captain of the team and Oikawa's best friend.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Bokuto Koutarou & Kuroo Tetsurou, Hanamaki Takahiro/Matsukawa Issei, Iwaizumi Hajime & Oikawa Tooru, Iwaizumi Hajime & Original Character(s), Kozume Kenma & Kuroo Tetsurou, Kozume Kenma & Original Female Character(s), Kuroo Tetsurou & Original Character(s), Oikawa Tooru/Original Character(s), Oikawa Tooru/Original Female Character(s), Original Character(s) & Original Character(s), Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Volleyball/Everyone
Series: Haikyuu School Tour [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1894423
Comments: 93
Kudos: 237





	1. New Game

**Author's Note:**

> I discovered I'm really bad at writing reader inserts because writing in second person POV is hard, so it became another OC insert.  
> \---
> 
> I'm not a volleyball guru by any means so i apologize in advance if a few things are incorrect. The internet can only tell me so much.  
> \---
> 
> Thanks for reading  
> Hope you enjoy!

“My Name is Yana Iwaizumi; I am ten years old. I’ve been practicing volleyball since I was five. I'm here to take the position of Libero.” The small umber haired girl bowed to the coach and her new teammates. “It’s nice to meet you!”

**_-_ ** **\----SEVEN YEARS LATER-----**

“I’m resigning from the Volleyball Club.” She handed the coach a completed resignation paper. “As you know my family and I are moving, so I won’t be able to attend the next competition season.”

The coach scratched the back of his head as he took the paper and signed it. “It’s a shame. You are a very effective Libero.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The coach remained as stone faced as ever. “You may leave.” He shooed her away and closed the door behind her.

Yana let out a breath that she didn’t know she was holding. The only time Yana had ever seen her coach change expression was during a competition so one would think that she would be used to his gaze by now. _I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it._ She shook her head as she continued to walk through the empty halls of her school, only to stop at the trophy case.

A plethora of trophies were neatly arranged in the glass confines. Plenty of ‘first place’ trophies, three ‘second place’ and only one ‘third place’. Under some mysterious fate all the members of her elementary volleyball team managed to stay together all the way to the second year of high school. It wasn’t exactly the most pleasant scenario if anything. She sighed as she eyed the single third-place trophy. It was the first and only third place they earned. After that competition the team got a new coach and eventually drilled into all the members -herself included- that winning was everything. At first it was fine but after more and more trophies came in the fun from the game was replaced with something akin to distaste. Volleyball became a chore.

Yana started to walk again. The team eventually became a toxic mess of fumes and pressure. They weren’t allowed to make a mistake. The team aimed for gold and only gold. Anything less and it would be punishment drills for days. She shuddered at the memory of doing weeks’ worth of diving drills after they only reached silver. “Oh well. It’s over now.”

Yana’s phone buzzed.

 **_Kuroo:_ ** _Come over to Kenma’s_

 **_Kenma:_ ** _Why is it always my place?_

 **_Kuroo:_ ** _because you hate going outside._

 **_Yana:_ ** _True_

 **_Yana:_ ** _And will do. See you there!_

She slipped her phone back into the pocket of her purple and white checkered skirt and began to walk to Kenma’s place. Kenma and Kuroo have been her best friends since they were nine. When she first met them, it was at a kids’ volleyball camp. Kuroo was more reserved back then, while Kenma was a little more unapproachable. She looked back on the memories fondly. The reason she was able to be friends with them in the first place was because she accidentally hit Kuroo in the face with a stray ball, since learning they lived a few houses away from each other, the three were practically joined at the hip.

It wasn’t long before she reached the house, it was a pretty standard house if she had to be completely honest. Kenma lived the closest to Nekoma High. As much as she wanted to go to high school with the two boys, she was unable to since she was just outside of the school zone.

Yana knocked on the door twice before it was opened by Kuroo. His hazel eyes and cat-like pupils never failed to make Kuroo seem more intimidating, especially with his height and stature. He filed out pretty well since he joined volleyball, becoming more muscular and well built compared to both Kenma and herself.

Kuroo was still sloppily wearing his school uniform; his white shirt was untucked over his grey pants and his red tie loosened around his neck. She could see his black sweater vest and blazer carelessly placed on top of his bag. As much as Yana hated to admit it, Kuroo looked good in anything and everything he wore.

“Will you ever get rid of that bedhead of yours?” She grinned looking up at him.

Kuroo returned her shit eating grin with one of his own. “Will you ever get taller, little Yana?”

Yana gasped, mock offended “Excuse you, I have grown taller I’ll have you know! I'm 167.6 cm (5ft 5in) so I'm not that short.” She took off her shoes as she entered the house. It hadn’t changed at all since she first came to visit. The hallway was lined with maple colored hardwood flooring with doors on either side, the first leading to the kitchen, the second leading to the living area and the last leading to a small storage cabinet. They chatted easily about the mundane events of the day as they walked up to Kenma’s room.

“Kenma! We’ve arrived” Kuroo declared as he flung the door open. “Volleyball!”

Kenma looked up from his game, unsurprised by Kuroo’s entrance. The Nekoma team had just finished their practice and Kuroo wanted to play again? Nope. “If you win against me first.” Kenma held up two extra remotes. “Mario Kart. Best of five.”

Yana was always thankful for Kenma’s dislike of being tired. She didn’t think she had enough energy to do any kind of sport for the rest of the day. She picked up her own controller and took her place between Kenma and Kuroo. 

**_-_ ** **\----FIVE RACES LATER-----**

"I know we aren't bad players compared to the average person but why do I feel so trashy when I play against Kenma?" 

"Because he demolished us in every race." Kuroo groaned. 

On the other hand, Kenma flashed one of his rare smiles "With all my time gaming I’ll definitely win against you both." 

The trio looked at each other in silence for a moment before the rowdier two burst out laughing. "Well, you're not wrong there."

"If only you were that enthusiastic about volleyball." 

Kenma immediately turned back to his game "I don't like being tired." 

Once the laughter died down, Kuroo ran his fingers through his messy back hair in a futile attempt to tame it. "You know...you could have stayed with one of us." he pursed his lips, being uncharacteristically serious. 

Yana hesitated before she answered. She knew that Kuroo was talking about her moving situation. 

"Yeah, it'd make more sense than moving way out into the country. We even have a guest room here" Kenma added. 

She didn't doubt either of them. They were already as thick as thieves. "You know I can't do that." Yana sighed as she fiddled with the controller in her hands. "It's always been my family's dream, ya know? I can't just ruin it like that. Besides, we'll still be in touch."

Kuroo and Kenma looked at each other. They both weren’t stupid enough to believe that she agreed to go just because of it being her ‘family’s dream.’ If they had to be honest, her parents would have probably been totally alright if Yana wanted to stay in Tokyo and go to Nekoma instead of moving out to the country.

Kuroo played with the tips of her long hair. It was the color of aged whiskey, with some subtle lighter hues from the sun. Her side fringe was swept out of the way to show off her amber eyes as the remaining strands framed her face. Yana usually kept it up in a ponytail but this time she had it down, so the tips reached to the middle of her back.

“Will you continue volleyball in your new school?”

 _No._ “Maybe…” Yana didn't add the rest, she didn't want to go into detail nor talk about what happened. Maybe one day but not today. _Coward._

Instead of asking about it, Kenma and Kuroo didn’t push the subject. The boys had learned the hard way that if she didn’t want to say anything she wouldn’t. Rather, she would get pissed at them for a good long while. The first and last time they pushed was when they were ten. Yana didn’t talk to them for a week then after a week she came back and apologized crying about how mean she was. Needless to say, just because they weren’t kids anymore didn’t mean that there wasn’t a possibility that it could happen again. “Well, if you do, make sure you drag your country bumpkin team all up to regionals.” Kuroo gave her a shit eating grin as Kenma rolled his eyes. “Show ‘em what the best libero in world can do.”

This time it was Yana’s turn to cringe. “Ew, why are you like this.”

Kuroo simply laughed it off. He had the kind of laugh that was always funnier than the joke. Unfortunately, as attractive as Kuroo looked, he didn’t have an attractive laugh. Though, if you’re into it, you’re into it. Who was she to judge? 

“Where will you be staying?” Kenma asked, still not looking up from his game.

“Somewhere in the Miyagi Prefecture. Do you remember my cousin? The one I was talking about who used to catch bugs and stuff?”

“The one who scared you at first?”

Yana nodded, “Yeah, that guy. Well, apparently, he lives there too. We will be neighbors.” Yana sighed internally and hoped that he had become less scary and less into bugs. Creepy crawlies of any and all kinds are so not ok. “I’ll be going to Aoba Johsai – also known as Seijoh, for my third and final year. So that’s pretty cool.” 

A silence filled the familiar room. The three were supposed to stay together and make the greatest trio of childhood friends. They had it all planned out from when they were kids. Though looking back on it, the promise was quite unrealistic.

“Once you graduate, you’ll be coming back to Tokyo, right?” As indifferent and uninterested as Kenma seemed he did worry a fair amount for his friends.

Yana pouted, “Of course! Who do you take me for? Kuroo?”

The black haired male spluttered, “Hey! I resent that statement.”

The playful banter resumed once more as the trio enjoyed what fleeting time they had together.


	2. Family Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to meet the family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything becomes 100 times louder when you're trying to not wake someone up. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Thankfully, the move to their new house was a smooth one. No missing luggage, nothing forgotten, no little inconveniences. Yana was more tired than anything, she had cried during the first portion of the trip when she had to say her goodbyes to Kuroo and Kenma.

The first thing she noticed when they arrived was the lack of bustle. Yana was used to the tall buildings laid down in precise grid patterns, the streets jammed with traffic and the fumes from belching vehicles. She grew up in a city that was a vast labyrinth of noisy streets and alleys. There was none of that here. There was an earthy breeze to the air, the fragrance of flowers and trees. That’s not to say it was completely flowers, meadows and farmland. She wasn’t going out that far, it was just far enough that there were no skyscrapers or tall buildings in sight.

Their new house was -if she was being completely honest- pretty average. It was more spacious than the place in Tokyo, that’s for sure, but apart from that, there weren’t any real notable differences. Yana hauled the suitcases filled with her items up the stairs to her room. She took a second to catch her breath before opening the door. Yana wasn’t sure what she was expecting but it wasn’t too bad. The bed was pushed against the side of the room, adjacent to the large window and mahogany bookshelf. Below the window there sat a modern styled white desk, it’s surface empty.

Yana brought in the rest of her luggage and let out a small huff. “It’s time to unpack everything.” The walls were a soft blue that nicely complimented the lacy white curtains and hardwood floor. Slowly, she found a place for each personal effect to live.

It wasn’t long before the brightness of the sunlight began to wane. Yana watched the cloud patterns as they lazily drifted across the darkening sky. It had already been hours since she started unpacking and rearranging. She turned back to examine her newly put together room. Yana thought she did a pretty good job on it. The walls were sprinkled with various photos of her family and best friends, some framed and others pinned onto a large cork board which sat on the wall beside the desk. On her desk lived a colorful array of stationary, her laptop and her favorite photo. It was a candid picture of Kuroo, Kenma and herself. It was a cold winter’s day and they were mid-snowball fight when the photo was taken. Their rosy cheeks and red noses fit in perfectly with their laughter.

“Yana! We will be having dinner together with cousin Hajime and his family.” Her mother called from downstairs, breaking Yana out of her trip down memory lane.

“Ok, Coming!” She stood up and made her way downstairs. _Hajime? Was that his name?_ Yana shrugged noncommittally, it didn’t matter if she didn’t know his name right away, she was certain he probably didn’t even know hers. Yana slipped on some flip flops and made her way to the door.

“Are you going to dinner looking like that?”

Yana looked down at herself. She was wearing a red oversized hoodie with the words ‘Oya Oya Oya’ printed on it in white block font and her plain black leggings. The hoodie was originally Kuroo’s, but Yana ‘borrowed’ it on a particularly cold day, and it became her hoodie ever since. “Yeah? I don’t look that bad.” She pouted and brushed a few stray hairs out of her face. Yana had to admit that her neon pink flip flops might have been the actual reason for her mother’s comment but oh well.

Yana trailed along beside her parents as she drowned out their idle chatter. She wasn’t particularly interested in meeting with her other relatives, but since they were going to be neighbors the chances that she would be roped into doing something with this ‘Hajime’ were very high.

\---------

“Kenma, have you seen my hoodie? The red one.”

Kenma smiled slightly not looking up from his game. “I told Yana she could keep it.”

Kuroo gasped and dramatically clutched his chest. “Kenma! How could you? That was my warmest hoodie.” Kuroo playfully tackled Kenma from behind.

“It’s payback.”

“For what?!”

Kenma paused and looked up from his game with a sour look on his face. “You are a total swindler. You act all sly and cat-like, you even go to Nekoma…and then you claim to be a dog person? Not only that, cats are way better than dogs. I feel so betrayed! You’re a scammer.”

“That’s it?!”

“And you ate the last slice of apple pie on Tuesday.” Kenma grumbled.

\-------

“Hey, I'm Yana…” She paused awkwardly as she held out her hand to shake. “I’ll be going to your school as a third year. It’s a pleasure.”

Iwaizumi took her hand and shook. “You can call me Hajime to avoid confusion. It’s nice to see you again.” He didn’t really know what else to say. “I would offer to walk to school and back home with you, but I have practice and don’t want to keep you waiting.” Truthfully, he really didn’t mind walking her to and from school but with his club commitments it would be difficult. It’d be nice to have someone to talk to while walking that wasn’t Oikawa. Yana didn’t seem like too much trouble.

“Ah, I mean I'm not opposed to going early and waiting after school.” Yana assumed it was some kind of club practice, maybe a sports club. She wasn’t entirely sure, but from what she could gather from his appearance alone, it probably was.

Yana and Hajime didn’t look related at first glance, but if you were to look a bit closer, they could be recognized as relatives. While Hajime had dark brown spiked up hair, equally dark eyes and a more muscular physique, Yana had slightly wavy caramel colored hair and amber eyes. Despite her time playing sports, she ended up being more lean than muscular, not that she was complaining.

Hajime was surprised at her laissez faire attitude and casual agreement, he expected her to decline or complain about it. It was a pleasant surprise. “Alright, Monday bright and early.” He nodded in her direction not really knowing how to carry on the conversation. When he had heard that one of his cousins was coming over, he wasn’t expecting someone so easy to get along with. Perhaps it was because he was used to people like Oikawa, but either way it was a nice change of pace.

It was Yana’s turn to speak up and attempt to save the conversation. “So, uh. What’s the school like? I've lived in the city my whole life so I was wondering if there were any differences I should know about. How about the people? Are the people here nice?”

Hajime and Yana started comparing schools and thankfully nothing was too different. A few minor changes but nothing too big. “The people are pretty nice too.” Hajime added. He sighed as an image of Oikawa being Trashykawa popped in his head. “Just. Beware of Trashykawa.”

Yana looked at him confused, _Trashykawa? Who was that?_

“He is a handful. A pain in the ass. An idiot. Don’t go near him if you can help it.”

“Right…” Whoever this person was, Yana felt a little bad for them as her cousin chewed them out. Hajime seemed like a chill dude, so whoever this ‘Trashykawa’ was, must be seriously difficult to deal with. After all, she could feel the irritation rolling off Hajime in waves. “What does he look like?”

Hajime rubbed his temples with two fingers. “Annoying.” Just before he could take out his phone and show Yana a picture their parents called them to eat dinner.

\-------

Dinner was uneventful. The parents seemed to have a blast at least. “Goodnight! Hajime will come over to pick up Yana in the morning.”

The two families said their goodbyes and went to their respective homes. Yana wasn’t sure if she was looking forward to Monday or not. She knew that the other students would be moving up a year and would have to reintroduce themselves, but it was a whole different level than transferring. _It’ll be fine. It’s basically the same thing as your old school. You are just excited. Turn that fear into excitement!_ She remembered the wise words of her first ever coach -not the mean old one, screw that guy- and got ready for bed then snuggled under the blanket. “Just do what you usually do.”

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY-----**

Yana put on her uniform and looked in the mirror, today was a new day. The pale lilac shirt was newly pressed and neat on her lean frame. She had opted to wear the cream sweater without the blazer because it was way too hot for that. At the very least it was hotter than what she was used to back in Tokyo. Yana gave a little twirl causing her light brown checkered skirt to flutter a little. “Well, that’s not going to cut it.” She mumbled unimpressed. After a few seconds of rummaging in her drawers she found what she was looking for. She shimmied into her bike shorts to hide them under the skirt and knee-high black socks. Yana gave another twirl in front of the mirror this time a little more carefully to avoid messing up her hair. She spent way too long tying her hair up in a braid crown and she wasn’t about to ruin it.

Yana heard the doorbell ring. _Is it that time already?_ She adjusted the red ribbon and opened the first button of her shirt to loosen it slightly so she could wear it comfortably. Yana made sure she had everything she needed in her red backpack before going out to meet Hajime. “Day one here we come.”


	3. Day One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day of school   
> She makes friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do construction workers party?   
> They raise the roof! 
> 
> Happy reading

“You look nice.” Iwaizumi deadpanned.

Yana smiled at his effort “Thank you”

The school wasn’t that far from where they lived but it was still a little while away. They had to go up an unnecessarily steep hill to get to their school and she hated it with a burning passion. Uphill anything was a pain. Blame it on the lingering trauma from having to do laps up and down the hill whenever she missed the ball in volleyball practice.

“I'm going this way to the gym” Hajime pointed to the right. “And you just need to go straight and to the left to get to the main office. They should be open already. Sound good or do you want me to walk you?”

“I'm good” Yana chirped undeterred by one crucial factor. Directions were not her forte. It wasn’t long before she got lost. She wandered through the halls pretending like everything was ok. The glossy cream tinged floor and white walls seemed to go on forever as she aimlessly wandered around. Yana lamented at her lack of navigation skills as she glanced out the window. “Maybe I should have asked Hajime for help.” Thankfully, she was able to escape the confines of the building and make it out. She met eyes with another student. “Excuse me! Do you know where the main office is?” Yana could have sworn she saw him sigh.

“Yeah.” His expression remained indifferent. “I'm going there too.” He turned and began to walk in which Yana assumed, was the direction of the office. His dull brown eyes paired with his delicate features made him seem apathetic and tired, or perhaps he actually was.

She took his response as a cue to follow him. “What grade are you in?”

“I'm a first year student.”

“Oh cool. Are you excited for your first day?”

“Not really.”

Yana continued to keep her polite smile up as she tried to keep the conversation running. “What’s your name?”

“Kunimi.”

“I'm Iwaizumi. Ah, but my cousin also goes to this school so Yana would probably be easier.”

Kunimi nodded in compliance. “Ok.”

\-----

The main office walls were painted white and the carpet teal -the school colors- which unfortunately clashed with the dark mahogany desks. There was an array of filing cabinets on the left of the desk with several stacks of paperwork haphazardly placed on top. The woman at the desk seemed like the well put together type -though her desk was a different story. She wore business casual dress wear and her blonde hair was tied up in a tight bun.

“Hi! I'm Iwaizumi Yana. I'm here to pick up my schedule.” Yana wore her best ‘first-impressions-matter’ smile.

“Ah, The third year from Tokyo, correct?”

“That’s me” she chirped.

“You’ll be in the third-year building, class six.” The woman handed her two sheets of paper. One of them had her schedule printed on it and the other was a club registration form. “We encourage our students to join some kind of club while in high school. It looks much better on your college entrance papers and it gives you a chance to try out new things while you are still young.”

“Aha, of course. I’ll consider it.” Yana lied easily. She wanted to be part of the ‘going home club’. After spending years of her life in the volleyball club she had decided she didn’t want to wake up in the ungodly hours of the morning just to do exercise. She didn’t mind the after school practice too much, but it still wasn’t one of her favorite things to do. Honestly, it was hard to like anything with a demon coach breathing down your neck.

\------

It wasn’t long before students and teachers began to fill the campus and make their way to their classrooms. Yana waited outside the room till the teacher called her in, Yana took a deep breath and opened the door. _It’s just an intro. No big deal. It’s not a big game or anything. You totally got this._ She internally reassured herself. Yana scanned the room, much to her utter dismay yet expectation, she wasn’t in the same class as Hajime.

She wrote her name on the board then turned back around to face her classmates. “Good morning everyone. My name is Iwaizumi Yana, but please call me Yana.” She gave her classmates her best ‘camera’ smile. Something she had practiced many times for post-game interviews. “I’m a transfer student from Tokyo and I’ll be joining your class and for future reference, my favorite candy is Konpeito” She winked playfully. “I look forward to spending the year with you.” She gave them a quick bow and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. _Nailed it._ Yana made her way to her assigned seat.

“Wait! Iwaizumi? Like that Iwaizumi? Are you guys married!?” A male voice called out.

Yana and the other occupants in the room turned to face the owner of the voice. A boy with short, thick black hair sported a lopsided grin and curious grey eyes. There wasn’t any trace of malice or mockery in his tone. He was simply curious.

Yana’s ‘camera smile’ didn’t falter. “The other Iwaizumi is actually my cousin. We are related.”

The boy froze in what seemed to be shock. “You are cousins and you are married!?”

“No! We are just cousins! Nothing like that.” Yana screamed internally as she tried to keep her voice level. So much for her good first impression. When the boy didn’t reply she took her seat, which was unfortunately next to said boy.

“Aiko. Enough with your theories. Class is in session.” The teacher sighed.

The sliding door slammed open revealing another student. “Sorry I'm late!” The tall boy had fluffy dark brown hair that swept outwards and an apologetic grin on his face. He was too far for Yana to see what color his eyes were, but she assumed it was probably the same color as his hair. Though she couldn’t deny he was really attractive. “I got stopped by some of my fangirls, I couldn’t exactly just leave them.”

_And down went those attractive points._ Yana groaned quietly. Hot and flirtatious. Of course, he was.

“Just go to your seat” The teacher gestured for the boy to sit then began class.

\------

By the time class was over Yana felt like she was ready to keel over and die. She knew that the curriculum from Tokyo and Miyagi would differ, but she didn’t know it would differ to this extent. All the topics the class went over, she had learned the year prior back in her old high school.

“Hey Iwaizumi!” The voice next to her vyed for her attention. “My name is Aiko, nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Yana smiled pleasantly.

“Sorry about earlier. I was just really curious.” Aiko chuckled nervously. “He scratched the back of his neck. “Is Tokyo really all it’s made out to be?” He had always wanted to go but never really had the opportunity.

Yana answered without hesitation, “Yeah, it’s pretty cool not going to lie.”

Aiko gasped, his eyes sparkling. “Really?! That’s awesome. I want to go to a college in the city so I can see it for myself.”

“You should give it a shot. I’d say it’s totally worth it.” Yana’s stomach growled. “Uh, anyway I'm ju-”

Aiko stood up abruptly and interrupted her. “You should each lunch together with us! Rini was saying she wanted to have a female friend.” He chuckled awkwardly again. “Since I…I'm a dude I can’t do that…” His sentence trailed off sadly.

_Fuck._ Yana conceded. “Alright. Sure. I’ll meet your friend.

\------

“Hihi! I’m Rini nice to meet you!” an overly enthusiastic girl practically bounced up and down as she introduced herself. She had a soft rounded jaw, a small nose and strawberry blonde hair that reached just below her shoulders in loose curls. Her innocent blue eyes glittered, not unlike a puppy.

“I’m Yana. Nice to meet you too. Aiko said you wanted another friend.”

Rini immediately blushed. “W-what? H-he said what?” She covered her face embarrassed. It was very cute. “Sorry. I didn’t know. You don’t have to be here against your will or anything.” Rini looked back up to Yana apologetically.

“No, no. It’s alright. Since I just transferred here it works out perfectly. I don’t really know anyone here apart from my cousin and I don’t really want to keep intruding on his school life.” Yana gently pried Rini’s hands away from her face. “Don’t worry about it, ok? We can be friends.” Yana gave her a reassuring smile. “How about we exchange phone numbers too?”

Rini brightened. “Y-yes! I’d like that.”

Yana took out her phone and handed it to Rini. The small blonde happily typed in her number then invited Yana to a group chat, the trio being the only members. “There we go!” Rini chirped as she handed Yana back her phone.

Aiko watched the exchange fondly. He liked Rini’s smile the most. “Let’s go get lunch and eat before break is over.”

The trio talked as Aiko and Yana bought some food. Rini had made her own lunch so there was no need for her to get anything. They chose a table a little farther away from the center so they wouldn’t be bombarded by people or any more questions. Somehow word had spread about ‘the transfer from Tokyo’. “Wooooow~ you are soooooo popular.” Rini giggled before she took a bite of her lunch. “Maybe a hotter topic than the volleyball captain being dumped.” She teased.

Yana pursed her lips. That was one thing she always disliked about her old school. “Oh, gee lucky me.” She paused for a moment. Yana wasn’t going to get involved with any kind of volleyball related activities, but she was a little curious about the team. “Who is the captain?”

“His name is Oikawa Tooru! He is super cute!” Rini squealed. “Most of the girls here really like him. He is really sweet and charming.” Rini sighed dreamily. “B-But I don’t like him or anything! I just appreciate how cool he is.”

_Oikawa? That sounds like Trashykawa, but at the same time. They don’t sound like the same person. Maybe I’ll ask Hajime on the way home._


	4. Required Reading

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime needs a break  
> How to be a better volleyball player 101  
> Thank goodness for cellphones   
> And a pun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw some dude trick a vegan into eating real cheese.   
> How Dairy. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“Yana! Over here!” Hajime called her over.

“Vice-captain Iwaizumi is calling your name?! Like, The Iwaizumi?! Did I miss something here?!” Runi gasped. “Where are my juicy details?”

Yana laughed and shook her head. “Nah, Hajime is my cousin.”

Rini pouted disappointed, then turned to Aiko. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You never asked.” He shrugged. “Must have slipped my mind.”

Yana sighed at her new friend’s antics. “Anyway, I got to go now. Bye!” Yana gave them a quick wave before she ran over to meet her cousin. “Woah. You ok there?”

Hajime radiated annoyance. His eyebrows were furrowed together and his uniform a little more disheveled than in the morning. “Shittykawa’s fangirls were all over him today and he used that as an excuse to be late to morning practice.” He huffed as the pair began to walk, presumably to the gym. “And don’t even get me started. Trashykawa just got dumped, he should at least act like it. If not for his sake, then the girl’s. But instead he asks me to evaluate his pick up line – in the middle of practice might I add” Hajime poorly tried to imitate his friend’s voice “Hey are you a volleyball? Because I’d dive for you anytime. Tch. How am I best friends with this guy?” He sighed and composed himself. “Sorry. I just really needed to rant.”

Yana chuckled a little. “It sounds like you are great friends.” It wasn’t long before they reached the gym. “I’ll tell you about my friends after your practice.” Yana split off from Hajime, while he went to change and get on the court, she found her way to the upper viewing area and away from the squealing fangirls. She wasn’t sure what sport the club revolved around since the members were still setting up. But whatever it was, she was guaranteed to have a good view from the second floor.

“Iwa-chan~!” A lively voice called out. “Did you miss me?”

Yana looked down to see who that voice belonged to. She couldn’t quite make out his features, but from what she could infer, the other person must be the ‘Trashykawa’ that Hajime complained about. Yana looked away from the pair now uninterested in the conversation she couldn’t hear. Some students pulled out a large net. Yana tensed. _Seriously?_ She scoffed internally, barely able to hide her disbelief. Another pair of students rolled out a cart filled with balls. Volleyballs. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” She mumbled. She had said she wanted nothing to do with the sport anymore yet here she was. Her cousin was the vice-captain of the boys’ volleyball team.

Yana heard a barrage of pings from her phone.

**_Kuroo:_ ** _How was your first day?_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _could it be you’ve forgotten us already?_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _my heart._

**_Kenma:_ ** _S T O P_

**_Kenma:_ ** _you know that’s not going to happen._

**_Yana:_ ** _Yeah. Kenma is right about that._

**_Yana:_ ** _How dramatic._

**_Kuroo:_ ** _I pride myself in that skill. I should be an actor_

**_Kenma:_ ** _I suggest a career change. You wouldn’t be very good._

**_Yana:_ ** _OOF, Kenma pulling out the facts_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _How could you take his side?! I let you borrow my hoodie!_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _I want it back btw_

**_Yana:_ ** _Kenma said I could have it. It’s my hoodie now._

Yana laughed quietly to herself. Her new friends were great. But nobody could ever replace Kenma and Kuroo. With them she didn’t have to act all cool and pleasant. With them she was able to be openly spoiled and a complete dork. It was refreshing.

**_Yana:_ ** _Oh! Look at the uniform! **[Insert selfie]** Aren’t I super cute? **[Insert uniform photo]** _

**_Kuroo:_ ** _what a gremlin._

**_Kenma:_ ** _red and black suit you better_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Teal and white are gross_

**_Yana:_ ** _OOF, I’ll take that as Neko-nyan-nyan bias._

**_Kenma:_ ** _Why do you insist on calling Nekoma that?_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Because she can’t spell_

**_Yana:_ ** _Bitch wht?_

**_Yana:_ ** _What*_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Point proven_

**_Yana:_ ** _M E A N_

Yana shook her head with a smile as she pocketed her phone. She could hear the squeaking of volleyball shoes on the gym floor, the sound of the ball being hit back and forth. Sounds that she hated. Yana looked back down at the game.

“One touch!” The player wearing #2 called out. The players scrambled around the court to try keep the ball in the air. She scanned the numbers looking for Hajime. All it took was a solid spike for her to notice him. He was #4 the Ace. _Impressive._ Yana may not be close to the court, but she could see how much every player enjoyed the game, how much every player wanted to win.

Eventually her eyes roamed to #1 the Captain and Setter of the team. Oikawa Tooru. She had only heard negative things about the guy from her cousin, but from Rini she went on a fangirl spiel about him. But despite what his real personality may be, she couldn’t deny that he was an amazing Setter. Every ball he tossed seemed to be just right for each spiker. If Yana was a Spiker, she would love to get a toss from him. She watched in awe as every toss he made catered to the needs of each player. She knew the setter in her old team was good, but compared to Oikawa… her ex-team Setter paled in comparison.

It was no surprise that the next player she examined was #7 the Libero of the team. As a fellow Libero herself, she was curious. It only took a few minutes of watching before she cringed. #7 failed to pick up serve after serve and cover after cover. He wasn’t good. He was not awful. He just wasn’t good. Yes, some of the serves from his teammates were nasty but surely, on a team as strong as this one -from what she could tell from the ongoing game- they wouldn’t just put in a random Libero and hope for the best. Possible explanations flooded her head. She watched #7 jump from the back line into a damn good midair set. “Ah.” _Maybe…_

Yana weighed the pros and cons. She just wanted to talk to the Libero. Just a talk. It was painful watching him struggle. She was only going to talk to #7, nothing else. As soon as the team called for a ten-minute break, she quickly scampered down the stairs and stealthily wriggled past the fangirls. “Hajime!” She whisper shouted as she flagged her cousin over. She didn’t want to be too noticeable; she knew what fangirls could and would do. “That Libero of yours, is he new? Or maybe he played a different role prior?”

Hajime looked a little stunned at Yana’s question. “His name is Watari Shinji, he was originally a Setter, but he was changed to Libero. Why’d you ask?”

“Can you call him over? I’m just curious and wanna talk ya know?”

Hajime looked at her strangely but reluctantly called him over. “Watari!”

#7 turned to Hajime and jogged over without hesitation. “Yeah? What is it?”

Yana smiled gently. “Hi there! My name is Iwaizumi Yana. Just call me Yana so it doesn’t get too confusing. You and I need to have a chat.” She turned to shoo Hajime away before she focused back on Watari.” Yana struggled with what to say next. The only way she knew how to coach people on volleyball advice came from her ex-coach. The demon one. Yana didn’t know how to appropriately say what she needed to say without sounding like a presumptuous twat.

“It’s ok.” Watari rubbed the back of his shaven head leaving no change to his buzz cut. He seemed to understand her predicament. “Say it how you see it. I won’t be offended or anything.” 

Yana nodded; she was very grateful for his reassurance. “So basically, to put it bluntly. Your sets are great, your receives on the other hand are a little shaky. I won’t tell you how to fix everything, but I can give you a few pointers. The most important being that you need to center yourself a little lower. If you are too low you won’t be able to move fast enough, but if you are too high you won’t be able to keep steady. You also want to be a little more flexible. When you are receiving the ball, you look a bit stiff. You are a righty, correct?”

Watari nodded as he listened intently to the advice given to him.

“When you receive, shift your body weight from your left back foot to your front right foot as soon as you contact the ball. That way you will be less prone to losing control and falling back. From what I've watched, some of your teammates have some scary serves.” 

Watari didn’t know what to make of the girl before him. She was giving him sound advice and it sounded like she knew what she was doing but who was she? He had never seen her in his life nor had Iwaizumi spoken about someone named ‘Yana’. He practiced shifting a little and lowered his stance. Without warning Yana gave Watari a firm push backwards. He wobbled a bit before regaining his balance.

“Lower.”

Once more Watari bent down, this time a little lower than before, but not by much. Yana gave him another firm tap. This time he didn’t budge. Such a little change could make a huge difference. He was itching to try it out in game. He was aware he wouldn’t be good right away, but he could at the very least try to return more balls than usual. “How do you know all this and who are you? You have the same name as our vice-captain, but he never spoke of anyone named ‘Yana’ before.”

Yana smirked. “None of that really matters.” She paused for dramatic effect. “I only wanted to show you the easiest way to kill a rocking serve.”

Watari groaned from the pun as the coach blew his whistle. “Fine, fine. I’ll just ask Iwaizumi. Thank you for the advice.” He gave her a quick wave then quickly ran back to the rest of his team. He was eager to practice now that he had a little more knowledge. _How to kill a rocking serve. If she ever makes a book, I’ll have to read it._


	5. Mobile Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Results of her advice  
> No one knows who he is   
> What's worse than homework? Projects.  
> The next morning is pretty cold too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is six inches long, two inches wide and drives women wild?   
> Money.
> 
> Happy reading!

Hajime watched as his cousin talked with Watari. He wasn’t really sure what they were talking about. It was unusual to say the least. “Iwa-chan!” Oikawa called out to his best friend; arms outstretched for a hug.

“Don’t.”

“Whaaaaa, how mean.” Oikawa raised an eyebrow as he noticed one of his teammates talking to a girl. A fangirl perhaps? Oikawa wasn’t against it; he would be a hypocrite if he was. He spoke to his fangirls all the time, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious. “So~ Who’s that cutie? You never let the fangirls talk to our members in the middle of practice.”

Hajime weighed the pros and cons to telling Oikawa who the ‘fangirl’ was. It was a surprisingly easy decision. “Find out yourself” He huffed. Hajime really hoped that Oikawa wouldn’t take his words as a challenge and actually try to find out who she was. He didn’t need his cousin fawning and gushing about how ‘cool’ Captain Oikawa was.

“Hmm~” Oikawa’s curiosity spiked. Who was this girl? Why was she talking to one of his teammates? What were they talking about? Who was she to Iwa-chan? He made it his personal mission to know, he couldn’t help it. Oikawa began to walk towards the pair before he was stopped by the sound of the whistle. “Watachi! Who was that pretty girl you were talking to~?”

“Iwaizumi.”

Oikawa froze in brief confusion. “But Iwa-chan is here though?” _As far as I'm aware, he doesn’t have a sister._

“O-oh, sorry. Iwaizumi Yana, she didn’t really tell me much else about herself. I haven’t really confirmed it but I'm going to assume that she is related to Iwaizumi, they don’t look that much alike, but they aren’t exactly that far off in terms of appearance either.” Watari gave his captain an apologetic smile.

_Someone related to Iwa-chan? And he didn’t tell me?! How could he?_ Oikawa clutched his heart dramatically. “I thought we were friends Iwa-chan!” He took a quick glance at where he last saw the girl, but she was gone.

“Hah? What are you spewing now?”

\--------

Yana quickly retreated up to the observation stands and reunited with her backpack. While she was talking to Watari she could see the Oikawa walking towards them. Someone she didn’t want to interact with at all costs. Yana heard the whistle indicating the start of a new game. _Hopefully the Libero fares a little better at his job._ She looked down and quickly found him. _Good form._

She turned to see who was serving. It was Hajime, his serves weren’t as brutal as Oikawa’s, but they were still pretty strong. The sound of the serve echoed through the gym as the ball went flying in Watari’s direction.

Yana held her breath. _Moment of truth._ The ball quickly made contact with Watari’s forearms and bounced right up in the air while staying on their side of the court. It was a perfect receive. She grinned proudly from the stands. She didn’t really help much, but he took her advice seriously and applied it in the match.

\---------

Watari grinned as he caught the first serve. It was so much easier to balance now that he had a solid stance. Once he came to his senses his team had already spiked the point.

“Watari, that was awesome! That was the first time you stopped Iwaizumi’s serve!” One teammate slung an arm over his shoulders.

“Thanks, Yahaba. Though I did have some help” Watari turned to look for Yana. “Remember the girl I was talking to?” Watari waited till his friend nodded. “Well, she was the person who gave me a few pointers.”

“Was she in the girls’ volleyball team?” Yahaba asked.

“Uh, I don’t think so. I've never seen her before today. She is somehow related to Iwaizumi though.” They both turned to Iwaizumi expecting an answer.

“You aren’t going to leave me alone till I tell you, are you?” Hajime sighed. “She is my cousin. She moved here from Tokyo. Now that’s enough. Let’s finish the match then we have to clean up and go home.”

\-------

The match ended promptly with Oikawa’s side winning. It was his serves that really racked up the points. “Iwa-chan!” Oikawa practically skipped to the rest of his gathered teammates. “Where is Iwa-chan?”

“He already left.”

Oikawa stood in place, stunned. Iwa-chan left him? _The great me?_ He internally cried purposely being overly dramatic. “How could he? After all that we’ve been through?! I thought we had a connection! Iwa-chaaaaaaaan!”

\------

Yana turned to face where the noise was coming from. “Looks like someone’s heartbroken” She giggled beside Hajime.

“I think he’ll get over it” Hajime deadpanned, barely acknowledging his childhood friend’s wails. He had sent a quick text after practice and directed Yana to leave from the side entrance of the gym rather than the main doors. Hajime knew that Oikawa would try to tag along just to meet her and Hajime would rather not have that happen under his watch. If they met in class or the hallway then fine, but he refused to be the one who introduced them to each other. Hajime could already feel the chaos incoming if he did. “Anyway. What advice did you give Watari?”

“Hm? Oh! Just the usual” She gave him a smile that seemed so innocent in the sunset hue of light. “Nothing fancy really. Just some basic knowledge.” Yana shivered slightly as the daylight waned. _Maybe next time I’ll bring a jacket._

“Whatever you told him really helped. How did you know what the issue was?” Hajime probed carefully trying to pull the answer out of her. She claimed that they were only basic pointers but how could she have noticed the problems in the first place if she didn’t have some background in Volleyball?

“I have some friends who play” Yana shrugged.

Hajime tried again with a more direct question. They were barely a few minutes away from their houses and he didn’t have any time to waste. “Did you play? Volleyball, that is.” As soon as their houses came into view, they stopped walking.

Yana smiled ruefully before she answered “Perhaps.” She waved goodnight and disappeared inside her house leaving Hajime with no definite answer. Yana did consider answering his question honestly, but she decided against it last minute. Who knows what would happen if she told him, what if he tried to get her to join the volleyball club? Or worse, tell the captain. She had never met the guy, but from what she gathered from Rini, Hajime and just watching the game, Oikawa seemed like the persistent type.

Yana dropped her backpack on the ground and flopped face first on her bed. Day one had gone pretty smoothly. She made two friends, found out what club Hajime belonged to and knew all the content of her classes. All in all, it was a productive day. She rolled over so she was on her back, her legs dangling off the side of her queen-sized bed. The teacher didn’t assign any homework but did hint that a senior project would be announced. _Now that I think about it. What would I do from my senior project?_ She couldn’t do a typical school memory scrapbook; she didn’t have any school memories to share. Maybe she would be excused from doing the project. “Pft. Fat chance.” She grumbled with a pout.

An idea came to mind. It only took two rings before Kuroo and surprisingly, Kenma, answered the group video chat. “Guys. What do you plan on doing for your senior project?”

“Nekoma has a few options to choose from. Memory scrapbook, podcast, volunteer work, presentation of things you care about, organizing an event, learning an unusual skill, make a picture book for kids, things like that.” Kenma tilted his head slightly revealing that he was in the kitchen eating -what they assumed to be- apple pie. “That's pretty much all of it.”

Kuroo looked shocked. “Why do you know all that? You aren’t even a senior yet. Damn, I didn’t even know those other things were options.” He paused for a moment to think. “Well, I did stop listening after the teacher said, ‘memory scrapbook’.

“That’s unsurprising”

Kuroo ignored Yana’s comment. “So, how’s school over there? Anyone cute~?” He squealed in an intentionally bad girly voice.

“Please don’t make that voice again. Ever.” Kenma cringed, disgusted by his best friend.

Yana burst out laughing. “Nah, I made two friends though.”

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT MORNING-----**

Yana rubbed her eyes and stumbled out of bed to get ready for school. She ended up staying up till two in the morning talking to Kuroo and Kenma. She had to thank whoever created video calls, how else were they supposed to play charades for three hours? She sighed as she pulled on her uniform. Yana didn’t have the energy nor motor skills to do her hair at this ungodly hour, so she went with the ever-reliable ponytail.

\-------

The morning went by as smoothly as she could hope, sure, she almost got lost but overall it wasn’t too bad. It was Hajime’s turn to unlock the clubroom, so he was a bit earlier than the rest of the team which gave Yana ample time to walk around campus and familiarize herself with the layout. Yana wasn’t the greatest at directions but given some time, even she could figure it out. The cold air nipped at her nose making it just the slightest bit pink. It was mornings like these where she wished she had brought an extra jacket, or a scarf even.

“Ya~hoo!”


	6. Number One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She formally meets the captain  
> Senior projects are announced

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They say "don't try this at home" so I'm coming over to your house to try it.
> 
> Happy reading!

Yana turned to face the owner of the voice. Much to her dismay it was Oikawa. Captain of the volleyball team. The person she least wanted to see.

“I didn’t expect someone as pretty as you to be here.” He grinned roguishly and winked as if he totally didn’t plan on coming early to see if Iwa-chan brought this ‘Yana’ with him. The brunette ran his fingers through his swept-out hair as his chocolate brown eyes met hers. “I don’t believe we’ve formally met, you look like you'd be a fan of mine.”

There wasn’t any mockery in his tone but something about him just rubbed her the wrong way. It definitely wasn’t his face -he was a very fine specimen. She just couldn’t put her finger on it. Perhaps it was all the ranting that Yana was exposed to by Hajime. As far as she was aware, he was not at all like how the fangirls described him. “Oikawa, good morning!” She chirped pleasantly. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here so early in the morning..”

His smile didn’t falter. “Well, it’s only natural. I am the captain of the volleyball team. I am supposed to come in this early. How about you?”

“I'm sure you know by now, I'm Iwaizumi Yana. Cousin of your childhood friend.” She added politely. They hadn’t exchanged many words, but Oikawa was already tiring to be around. "Unfortunately, I'm not here to see you, I don't really consider myself a fan of yours."

He ignored her last stinging comment. Oikawa said her name a few times as if he was testing the way it sounded on his tongue. “Yana-chan. That’s a very cute name.” Of course, he knew beforehand who she was. He had to pry it out of Iwa-chan, but it was worth it. He examined the girl in front of him. Now that he thought about it, there was a transfer student in his class. Oikawa was surprised he didn’t notice her right away; he would have certainly remembered honey amber eyes like hers. “Hopefully Iwa-chan has said all good things about me.”

“Hm, he talks about you quite a lot actually.” The conversation’s tone remained polite, but the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. They were sizing each other up to see how much either of them knew about each other. “Mostly about how a certain ‘Trashykawa’ gets on his nerves.”

Oikawa gasped dramatically. Immediately the tension in the air dropped from a ten to a zero. “Iwa-chan is so mean! I’d only say nice things about him.” He pouted childishly. Oikawa was the first to put down the metaphorical weapons, so it was only fair that Yana did the same. “So, what class are you in?”

Yana felt her ego take a small hit by that question. She tried to reassure herself saying that the only reason why he didn’t know was because he came late. “Third year, Class six. Same as you.”

Oikawa gaped, she was in the same class as him and he didn’t notice?! “Oh!” He mussed the back of his neck bashfully. “Sorry. I was late on the first day and didn’t notice we had the Tokyo transfer. That was my bad. I should have paid more attention.”

“It’s alright. Like you said, you were late and missed my introduction.” Yana shrugged, acting nonchalant. Oikawa didn’t seem as bad as Hajime made him out to be, but he didn’t seem quite as dreamy as how Rini described him. He seemed like a pretty nice guy though, if you ignored the whole flirty aura he had going.

“Do you maybe want a photo with me as an apology?” Oikawa offered as he flashed his signature grin.

Yana was thrown off once more and she didn’t have time to properly formulate a decent response. “Um…not really” She wasn’t exactly sure how to follow up.

Oikawa changed the subject faster than he started it, he wasn’t expecting her to reject his offer though looking back he should have seen it coming. Yana wasn’t his fangirl. She was just Iwa-chan’s cousin, which automatically gave her friend status. His usual response wouldn’t affect her. _Hold on._ A brilliant idea came to mind.

“You should be the volleyball team’s manager!” He exclaimed, excited at his genius. Since she wasn’t an overly obsessed fangirl, or fangirl at all for that matter then she would actually do what a manager should be doing instead of undressing the team with her eyes. The last manager they had crossed a few too many lines that she ended up getting kicked out by the coach.

“No. Not really interested” Yana replied without a second of hesitation.

_Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy_. “Why not? You come to school this early anyway with Iwa-chan. Plus if you want to, I'm sure the team would be happy to teach you how to play.”

Yana shrugged. “I don’t want to have anything to do with volleyball. I don’t need to learn how to play either. I appreciate the offer, but I must strongly refuse.”

Oikawa pouted in an annoyingly cute way. He knew how to use his expressions that’s for sure. If it wasn’t about volleyball, she might have caved to his puppy dog eyes. “Alright. I’ll just have to find a way to convince you till you do join.” He winked; if he could convince Iwa-chan then Yana-chan would be no problem at all. If he was anything, it was persistent.

Before Yana could say anything, Oikawa blew a kiss in her direction. “Bye Bye! I should be heading to the gym now. Talk to you later, Yana-chan!”

As soon as he was out of sight Yana groaned and plopped down on a nearby bench, if it wasn’t for the cold air, Oikawa might have seen the pink dusting on her cheeks.

\-----

"Good morning!" Aiko took his seat on Yana's left. "Are you excited for the senior project? Apparently, they are trying something new this year!"

"Something new, huh? Well I can't say I know what kind of project to expect but I'll keep that in mind."

"Psst! Yana-Chan!" Oikawa whisper shouted from a few seats in front of Aiko. "Hi"

Yana did consider not saying anything and pretend like their eyes totally didn't meet, but her friendlier side won out. "Hi."

Oikawa beamed like she had given him the sun; she could have sworn she saw his eyes sparkle. Yana gave a weak smile in return before the teacher called the class to attention. 

"Today, we will be giving you third years, time for your senior projects. As the rumors say we are going to change a few things. The first change is that we, the faculty have decided to broaden the range of activities we will allow you to do. The second change is that you will be working in randomly assigned pairs in the class. The pairings are final and will not be changed. Regardless of if you like your partner or not you have to learn how to get along with them. You will have till the last month of school to finish your chosen project.” The teacher narrowed his eyes at the class. “Just because you have the rest of the school year for the project does not mean you can procrastinate. This is a big portion of your final grade so take it seriously.”

_Partners? PARTNERS? Why?_ Yana didn’t know anyone in class -barring Oikawa and Aiko. But she really, really didn’t want to be paired up with Oikawa. If she could help it, she would want to be paired up with Aiko. There were twenty students in class six, herself included. That meant there was a one in nineteen chance to be paired up with Aiko and a one in nineteen chance to be paired with Oikawa. The odds weren’t looking so great.

The teacher held up a bright yellow box and instructed the class to form a line and pull out one of the folded ballots. Yana was the second to pick a number, she closed her eyes, swallowed, then hoped for the best. She opened the paper and read the number out. “Who has number one?”

“That’s me~!”

Yana knew that voice belonged to a particularly energetic person. “Aha… of course.” She cursed her luck then walked over to Oikawa with faux excitement.

“It must be fate that we’re together again!” Oikawa barely hid a smirk and bent down to whisper in her ear. “I look forward to our time together, Yana-chan.”

Yana felt his breath tickle her ear and cause shivers to go down her spine. _This fucker is toying with me._ She refused to take a step back and instead waited for him to back away. “I can’t say the same, but I appreciate the sentiment.” Yana smiled sweetly returning his challenge.

**_-_ ** **\----SOME TIME LATER-----**

Their teacher had allowed the students to sit in their pairs. He made it very clear that today was the one and only day he would allow project work in class. Oikawa and Yana had been bouncing ideas around for a while only to come up blank.

“Podcast? Vlogs?”

“No” Oikawa waved his hand to dismiss yet another idea.

“Play?”

“Nah”

“Organizing a charity event? Presentation?”

“No and no” He dismissed, faster than the last idea.

Yana was frustrated at this point. This guy had the audacity to shut down all of her ideas without even offering his own. “Then what do you want?” She huffed as she sat back on her chair, arms crossed.

A slick grin spread on his features dimpling his cheeks. It was the kind of smile that seemed both endearing and concerning at once. "I thought you'd never ask"

Yana pursed her lips. She had officially met Oikawa only a few hours ago but even she could tell that sentence meant something very bad was about to happen -or good- depending on the person’s perspective.

“I have an idea, a beautiful idea. Why don’t we…”


	7. Fangirls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is their school project?  
> A wild fangirl appears  
> Library visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My calling in life went straight to voicemail. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“No.”

“What? Whyyy? Yana-chaaaannn it’s an awesome idea!” Oikawa pouted.

“Our grade is riding on this project and that’s what you want to do?” She put her face in her hands and cried internally. _What is this guy even thinking? Is he even thinking?_

“Come on, give it a shot. We can ask the teacher and see what he thinks! If he says no, then we can just go with whatever idea you want. Sound good?”

Yana had to give it to him on that. That did sound like a pretty good plan. She dragged her hand down her face and sighed. “Fine. We can do that.”

\--------

“That sounds like an interesting idea. If that’s what you want to do, I’ll allow it. It’ll be an interesting project regardless of the outcome.”

Oikawa was ecstatic, while Yana was not. Yana’s jaw dropped. Their teacher actually agreed to Oikawa’s outrageous suggestion. Once the pair sat back down at their shared table Oikawa snickered. In his arrogant triumph, he smirked- just a small pout of his lips; tilted head and curled lip. It was so subtle but somehow it was even more infuriating. “Looks like we are going with my idea.” He held her hands in his own to keep them on the table. “Aren’t you just honored?”

The class was dismissed for lunch just after his statement. The pair didn’t register the change until a small group of girls from a different class came over to their table. “U-um Oikawa…I-I'm a first year here and I was wondering if Icouldhaveapicturewithyouplease!” The last few words were jumbled together; it was a miracle Oikawa was able to decipher it at all.

“Oh, a fan of mine?” He let go of Yana’s hands and slipped into an easygoing smile. “I’d love to take a picture with someone as cute as you.”

“Really?!”

“You bet. Just one though. I do need to have lunch after all” He laughed airily. He stood up to go with the first year but just before that he turned to Yana. Or at least where Yana was supposed to be. In her place was a post-it note with ten numbers hastily scribbled on it. There weren’t any words to go along with it, but if he was right with his guesses -which he usually was, contrary to popular belief- Yana had left her phone number and escaped somewhere to have lunch.

\-----

“Aiko! Look look! Do you notice anything different?” Rini ran up to Aiko and Yana but only addressed one of the two.

Aiko froze. It was one of the few questions where getting the correct answer was imperative. He quickly scanned over Rini, his grey eyes trying to find out where the difference was. A few seconds passed; he needed an answer soon otherwise it would get awkward. “Uh, you have cute socks?”

Rini deflated. “Ah, thanks. But uh, it was actually my hair. I braided it this time, now that it’s long enough to tie up.”

“O-oh! That’s cute too” Aiko tried for a save and failed. _So much for not making it awkward._

Yana’s heart went out to Rini, the poor girl was just trying her best.

Rini bounced back as quickly as she went down and greeted Yana. “Hi! How are you doing? Did you get your partner yet? Who is it? Are you excited? Do I know them? What is your project going to be? You look really cool today by the way. Digging the ponytail.” Rini didn’t pause to take a breath. It was incredible how she was able to say all that at once.

“I'm good, and yes we got partners. You’ve definitely at least heard of my partner before.” She sighed, “But our project? I'm really not excited for it. We are tr- careful!” Yana stopped in the middle of her sentence and quickly held her hands out to catch the falling girl.

The girl was originally pinning a poster on the notice board while standing on a stepping stool before she lost her balance and fell off right into Yana’s arms. “S-sorry” Her face turned red with embarrassment. 

“Are you alright?” Yana asked, concerned as she still carried the girl princess style.

The girl nodded and looked up into Yana’s eyes. They were bewitching. She felt like she was falling into a pool of deep honey. There was a gentle kindness hidden in those beautiful gold colored eyes, a promised reassurance that put her at ease. The girl’s eyes eventually drifted away from Yana’s and focused on her lips. _WOAH Hold up! Stop. I’m Oikawa’s fangirl! But this guy saved me, how dreamy. Has my spring love come?_ “I-I’m Ichika from the literature and drama club.” She squeaked as she righted herself back up, her black hair a frizzy mess. “Thank you for catching me! Sorry for the trouble!”

“No, no. Not at all. I'm just glad you aren’t hurt. Are you doing ok or would you like me to escort you to the nurse? It’s dangerous to walk around if you feel unwell.” Yana made sure Ichika was steady before she let her stand on her on.

_Oh, be still my beating heart! Is this love? Love at first sight with my prince?_ Ichika swooned internally; she had trouble looking her savior in the face or looking at all really. Instead Ichika closed her eyes and bowed slightly as thanks. “I’m perfectly healthy, t-thank you! Bye!” Ichika quickly ran off down the hallway her face dusted in pink. _My horoscope said that I would meet my true love today. Could it be him?_

\-------

It took a few seconds before Rini started cackling. “Oh my god! Did you see the way she looked at you?!”

“You were such a dreamboat, saving her like that” Aiko reenacted an over-exaggerated scene with Rini as the pair laughed together. “Are we seeing the start of Yana’s diehard fan?”

If she was being honest, Yana would very much prefer to not have a fan club. Kenma and Kuroo had once poked fun at her when they found out about her fan club back in Tokyo, who knows what they would do if they knew she had a fan out here. Yana raised an eyebrow. “I just did what anyone would have, she was falling, and I caught her” She said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I was genuinely concerned; I’ll have you know.”

Once Aiko and Rini had calmed down, the trio went to pick up their lunch. “Can we eat outside today? There is this really pretty place I didn’t know the school had until yesterday.”

Aiko looked at Yana for confirmation before he answered Rini “Sure, lead the way.”

The pair followed as Rini led them out. It was on the edge of the campus which would explain why no one went out of their way to eat there, despite how nice it looked. There was a little breeze that made the leaves rustle and kept the air cool enough so the trio could sit in the shade of the tree. Yana and Aiko were perfectly content with letting Rini steer the conversation into whichever way she so desired. By the end of lunch, they had covered at least several different topics. All of which had no connection to the other. Yana was just thankful the topic of the senior project or partner never came up again.

Yana’s phone pinged a couple of times. Even without looking she knew who it probably was.

**_Unknown number:_ ** _ <3 it’s me _

**_Unknown number:_ ** _;9_

**_Yana:_ ** _Trashykawa?_

**_Unknown number:_ ** _Iwa-chan already exposed me!?_

**_Yana:_ ** _A long time ago. Like, from day one._

**_Unknown number:_ ** _ </3 _

Yana added Oikawa to her phone contacts under the name ‘Trashykawa’ it seemed to be the most reoccurring name that Hajime liked to call him.

**Trashykawa:** Club practice ends early today so do you wanna go somewhere to get started on the project?

Yana was taken aback, without warning the tone of his text messages shifted from childish to a student his age. He seemed like the kind of guy who would slack off till the last minute, she had already resigned herself to do it all alone, so this was a nice surprise. She had to give him some points for that.

**_Yana:_ ** _Sure, where though?_

**_Trashykawa:_ ** _library?_

**_Yana:_ ** _sure._

**_Trashykawa:_ ** _see you later ;9_

Yana shoved her phone back in her pocket. She highly doubted they would find anything about their topic in the library, but who knows. Maybe there would be something useful. At least that’s what she hoped.

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER PRACTICE-----**

“Ya~hoo” Oikawa chirped, with a smile on his face. He was very excited for the project. The library was filled with muted chatter, there were people inside moving from one place to the next, each action was smooth and far from intrusive. It was a practiced motion. The pair chose a more secluded table and pulled out some books, with each turn of the page Yana lost more and more hope.

“Do we have to do this topic?” She whimpered. Gathering any kind of information and supporting proof would be a huge pain in the ass. _Why couldn’t he have chosen something normal?_

“No can do” Oikawa looked up from his book triumphantly. A childish mirth danced in his eyes. “By the end of the year, we will have convinced everyone in the class that aliens are real!”

The librarian gave the two a harsh look which caused Oikawa to quickly apologize to the lady. He sat back down and pointed at the book in Yana’s hands. “Books like these will help solve all our problems.

Yana wanted to cry. Their project, that a huge portion of their senior grade relied on, was debating if aliens were real or not. She wasn’t even sure if Oikawa really believed that aliens were real or if he was just curious, she was too nervous to ask lest she discover more things about him that she would prefer not to. She didn’t want to ‘get to know him’, she would rather not have anything to do with him outside of the project, unfortunately Oikawa was Hajime’s best friend. From what she had heard, the pair were a package deal. You can’t have one without the other.


	8. Mocha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rini tries her best   
> Lunch in the library   
> Rewards from the cafe  
> Yana and Oikawa talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fridges need transparent doors. That way I don't have to stand with the fridge door open, trying to figure out what I'm going to get
> 
> Happy reading!

“What happened?” Yana deadpanned.

Oikawa looked away guiltily, suddenly the dull beige titles of the nurse’s office looked very interesting. No matter what both Iwaizumis’ said, Oikawa refused to believe he did anything wrong. He was just very passionate about what he wanted to do. Besides, what he did was both productive and related to the school project.

“This idiot stayed up all night working on his senior project then injured his knee in morning practice.” Hajime let out an exasperated huff. He didn’t know who Oikawa’s partner was but whoever it was, he felt immense waves of pity for them. Oikawa’s personality was the type to obsess over things, once he got hooked, it was game over.

Yana didn’t know what to say. She could relate to Oikawa; she couldn’t exactly scold him on what he did because she had done something similar before. “I see.” She looked towards Oikawa’s injured knee then back at Hajime. “Hold on. You want me to bring him around, don’t you?”

Hajime put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed firmly. “You will do great. Now I have to get back to morning practice.” He hastily retreated out of the office and -presumably- back to the gym leaving Yana alone with Oikawa.

She sighed and held her hand out to Oikawa "Come on, let's get you up. We can work on the project again at lunch." Yana decided she may have misjudged him at first, perhaps he wasn't only what the fangirls thought of him. Someone who was all face wouldn't have put as much effort into the project as Oikawa did. At least that's what she believed.

\-------

"Aiko! Yana!" Rini waved and practically bounded over to the pair. It was a little unfortunate that they weren't all in the same class, but it was rather endearing how Rini always came to class six just to meet up with them. "Aiko! I-I uh, well I just so happened to stumble upon two tickets for that one movie you were looking forward to. You can have them if you want." Rini blushed and passed them over to him.

Yana was almost certain that this time Aiko would understand that Rini was trying to get him on a date. Unfortunately, Yana was wrong.

"Oh wow! My little brother has been wanting to watch this movie too. I’ll bring him with me. Thanks, Rini!"

"Y-yeah… sure thing!" Rini forced out a smile. She was disappointed as usual.

Despite it only being a few days, Yana could tell that Rini was dropping big hints that she liked Aiko, but whether he was ignoring them or didn't actually notice, Yana wasn't sure.

"Yana-chaaaaaannn" Oikawa walked over slower than usual. "You said we would work on our project together at lunch. It's lunch." He waved to Rini with the same pleasant smile as always "I’ll be taking Yana-chan for a while is that alright?"

Rini was speechless. Yana's partner was Oikawa. The Oikawa. Rini nodded quickly before she recomposed herself. “Yeah! That’s totally all good.” Rini sent a sly smile to Yana, her eyes promising to interrogate her some time later.

Oikawa and Yana waved goodbye before they headed off in the direction of the library. Oikawa hummed as he walked alongside his partner. The school library was livelier than the library they previously visited; the books however were even more useless than yesterdays. Oikawa seemed to be having the time of his life as he scanned through each book.

Yana glanced up towards him. Even as they sat opposite each other she could tell he was tall, though he didn’t have the kind of bulk that Hajime had, Oikawa seemed more lean, slender even. As Oikawa studied the book his face lit up with a grin that kids would make when they have something mischievous planned. When the sunlight touched his hair, it was the color of hot chocolate, a mix of light and dark strands that flopped over one of his eyes as he looked down. He was focused on what he was reading which made for a nice change to the ever talkative boy. The background behind him seemed to dull slightly, it was a poster worthy sight. With how he is, you would never guess that Oikawa was looking through a book on conspiracy theories about aliens.

Oikawa caught Yana unabashedly staring at him. “Have you fallen in love with me yet?” he winked.

She raised an eyebrow and looked back to her own book. “Never going to happen, guys like you aren’t my type.” Yana replied coolly. _He looks great, but then he opens his mouth and ruins it._

“What about agreeing to be the volleyball club manager?”

“I think not.” Yana deadpanned.

“Oh! Look, I found something.” He held up his book for Yana to read.

She scanned the page, it was an article about unidentifiable raw materials that appeared around crop circles, her eyes landed on the date it was written. Two years ago. That wasn’t too far back, they could use it.

“Good job, that’s one persuasive point and article out of...” She thought for a moment. “...out of a lot."

The sound of their chatter was interrupted by Yana’s alarm to get back to class. After lunch, the two of them didn’t have any classes together so they had to go their separate ways.

“Meet me at the gate after school, we deserve a coffee” he winked and disappeared into the crowd.

_We literally found one possible outcome, we really don’t deserve a reward._ She rolled her eyes, more amused than anything. His lighthearted attitude was annoyingly infectious.

\------

Oikawa waited by the gates eventually amassing a small cluster of girls. They wanted pictures, offered him snacks, an autograph or two, perhaps his phone number. He couldn’t say he hated the attention, but sometimes he really wanted some space. One of those times being right now, but he grit his teeth and smiled. He couldn’t let his façade drop and crush the image that his fangirls had thought up.

“Wait. Are we actually going to get coffee?” Yana raised an eyebrow as she spotted Oikawa being swarmed by the gate.

“Why else would I be here?” Oikawa shrugged then turned to the little cluster or fangirls. “Sorry, I promised to get coffee with Yana-chan. I can’t really break that promise.” He rubbed the back of his neck feigning bashfulness.

Oikawa’s fangirls immediately turned to face her with mixed expressions. Some confusion, disbelief, anger and she could have sworn someone hissed at her. Yana’s pleasant expression didn’t budge. She was used to it. There was an almost worrisome silence as she glanced through all the fangirls. Ichika was among them.

Ichika looked Yana up and down taking in the sight of her uniform skirt. “My prince…is a girl?!” Ichika felt heartbroken. Her first love had come and gone so fast. _But she is just so cool…_ As much as Ichika wanted to, she couldn’t help but still swoon over Yana. _I need to make a fan club._

Yana sighed before she started walking closer to Oikawa. With each step she took, the fangirls cleared away. By the time Yana was within arms reach there were only a few scattered fans hovering around them. “Let’s go get some coffee.” Yana began to usher Oikawa away pretending not to notice the stares.

Once they were inside the café Yana relaxed. “Are your fangirls always that intense? Or was it just today?”

Oikawa shrugged, “I think it was probably your fault. What do you want?” He placed his order before asking Yana for hers.

“Mocha, please” Yana handed him some money for her order.

“No, I got it.” Oikawa waved away her offer. It didn’t take very long before their drinks came in. “Here” He handed her the drink and sat on the opposite seat. The interior of the café was warm and welcoming. Their small square table had a tiny coffee mug with succulents growing in it as the centerpiece. Their table sat right beside the large viewing window giving them a perfect view of the flowers.

A few moments of silence passed as they took a sip of their respective drinks. Now that Yana thought about it, they never got to talk about anything other than their project. Yana was well aware she was opposed to the idea of ‘getting to know him’ but she couldn’t help but notice his strained smiles. It was uncanny. As if she was looking at a mirror of her former self. _Is it really former if you are still doing it now?_ the voice in her head chided. She pushed the voice away and started the conversation. “How’s volleyball going?” Yana decided on a safe topic first. She knew he was a volleyball maniac -if the rumors were to be believed. A girl dumped him because of volleyball, which meant he probably had at least some dedication to the sport.

Oikawa looked taken aback briefly. He wasn’t actually expecting Yana to talk about anything other than the project and he definitely wasn't expecting her to willingly bring up volleyball. “Well, we are planning on having a practice match with another school not too far from here, Karasuno I think. You should come watch. It’ll be held in a few days, by then, hopefully, I’ll be healed enough that the coach will let me back in. There is someone there I really want to see again.”

“Ah, that was the other school I considered going to. That was until we found out Hajime went to Seijoh.” Yana tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

“We weren’t even your first choice? Oh, my poor heart.” Oikawa clutched his shirt dramatically. "But aren't you glad you didn't choose Karasuno? If you chose them, how else would you be able to see my beautiful face?"

“Pft, If only your personality was as beautiful as your face. Maybe then I'd feel bad if I chose Karasuno” Yana playfully stuck her tongue out at him before she took a few sips of her drink. She rubbed the side of her mug with her thumb, the mood suddenly turned somber. “Why do you like volleyball? What makes it fun for you?” Her eyes bore into his searching for an answer. She had seen the team play, Oikawa included. They all looked so focused, they enjoyed every moment of the game, Oikawa especially. Yana needed to know what drove him to work so hard. What was it that motivated him to the point of obsession? What was he playing for?


	9. Empty Coffee Mugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fangirl swarm part two  
> Oikawa does some snooping around on the internet  
> Thank god for videos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Broken pencils are pointless.
> 
> Enjoy!

Oikawa brought the mug to his lips and finished off his drink before he spoke. “When I was younger, I wasn’t really the biggest fan of the sport. Whenever I’d practice, my forearms and palms would end up hurting a lot from the ball. I suppose It’s something that I've grown to like over the years.” He dismissed Yana’s look of disbelief. “Not to mention, the gratification I feel when our team scores. Their excitement is infectious. Who doesn’t like winning?” Oikawa smiled knowingly. “The one that drops the ball on their side of the court loses. It’s that simple.”

Yana nodded; she had a feeling that there was more to it than what he claimed, but those reasons were probably more personal. She could relate to him though, those ideals used to be her motivation too.

“What about you? Why don’t you like volleyball? Why are you so against it?”

At this point; Yana felt obligated to answer. He had graciously answered her questions, so it was her turn. “Volleyball… used to be fun. In the end it became tedious, a chore. Winning wasn’t something I looked forward to anymore. I just wanted the match to end -preferably with us as the victors. I’m not saying I don’t like to win; I'm just saying that it wasn’t something positive that motivated me during our matches.”

“You used to play competitively?” Oikawa asked, rather surprised at the new discovery. The more he mulled the idea over in his head the more likely it seemed. It wouldn’t really be a too far-off guess.

Yana didn’t answer and instead opted to finish her mocha. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell him or not, Yana was worried that if she did tell him he would be considerably more persistent in trying to convince her to join the club. Well, that and his personal opinion on her could also drop considerably. _Wait, why do I even care about what he thinks of me?_ Before she was able to say anything a small group of girls came by, all wanting to talk to Oikawa.

“Oikawa! I can’t believe you are here too!” One of them squealed. Once they had all noticed him, a flurry of questions poured out.

“What do you think about my hair?”

“What about my lip gloss?

“Am I cute?”

“You are really hot.”

“Can I take a photo with you?”

“What are you doing here?”

Oikawa had mastered his fake smile, right down to the dimples on his cheek. No one ever questioned it except Iwa-chan. He always believed life would be easier and better with a fake smile on his face. To always be kind to others, compliment them and give them the time of day. 

Yana pursed her lips as she watched the interaction between Oikawa and his fans. It was uncanny and she hated it. Some of the things he did reminded her of memories she'd rather forget. It wasn't his fault and she knew that, but sometimes the discomfort itched at her. Yana shook her thoughts away, no. He wasn't anything like her. She turned her back on her problems while he didn’t. Oikawa was probably a much stronger person that she gave him credit for.

“Oikawa.”

No response.

“Oikawa!” Her voice was drowned out by the squeals of delight.

The girls were getting out of hand as they invaded Oikawa’s personal space. Yana could tell he was getting a little uncomfortable but didn’t say anything. Yana needed to do something to get everyone’s attention. Luckily, she knew a fool proof solution. "Kawa-chan~"

The girls looked at Yana in shock.

Oikawa looked at Yana in shock.

_Finally._

That was the last thing they all expected, a nickname. No one outside of Hajime had dared to give Oikawa a nickname. It just wasn’t a thing. A cutesy nickname wouldn’t suit the illustrious captain of the volleyball team.

Oikawa was the first to recover. "Yes?"

"We have another meeting to get to, remember? We don't want to be late."

Oikawa seemed to take the hint. "Oh! You're right, I almost forgot because I was talking to these pretty ladies. How silly of me."

Yana cringed internally, even in his departure, of course he had to say something like that.

The pair stood up and waved the other girls goodbye as they exited the shop. "So, Kawa-chan, huh?"

Yana looked away, not willing to make eye contact with him. "That was a one off and won’t be happening again."

“Aww, I thought it was cute. Way better than all the nicknames Iwa-chan calls me” Oikawa pouted. “So, where are we going?”

Yana looked at the clock on her phone. “Home. It’s getting late.”

“Cutting our date short like that? Have you no mercy?”

Yana smirked, “I have as much mercy as you give during your serves.” She paused for dramatic effect. “None.”

\-------

Much to Oikawa’s dismay, Yana wouldn’t let him walk her home, even though he already knew where she lived. Not because he was a stalker or anything, it was because Yana lived right next door to Hajime. Immediately once he reached home, he turned on his computer, “Tokyo…competitive girls’ volleyball high schools” He typed into the search bar and pressed enter. Yana refused to tell him what school she was in previously so he couldn’t use it to narrow down his search. Yana didn’t even want to tell him what part of Tokyo she was from. He was convinced that Yana used to be in a competitive team, there was no way she would have been able to help Watari ~~Watacchi~~ as a libero otherwise. Oikawa tried to remember their conversation in the café. There had to be something he could use.

**_TOP RESULTS_ **

**_[Fukurodani Academy Volleyball]_ **

**_[Itachiyama Academy Volleyball]_ **

**_[Nekoma High Volleyball]_ **

**_[Nohebi Academy Volleyball]_ **

**_[Shinzen High Volleyball]_ **

**_[Shōsha Academy Volleyball]_ **

**_[Ubugawa High Volleyball]_ **

Oikawa scrolled through the list, none of the schools really stood out to him, which left only one option. To look through all of them. Thankfully, all of the schools had photos for all their competitive sports teams. “No…that’s not it…where are you...?” He mumbled to himself as he grew more and more agitated. There was no way he was wrong. His gut feeling was always right... mostly… sometimes… Oikawa finally reached the link for Shōsha Academy. His eyes widened as he read the volleyball page. _Woah. Three-time national champions?_ He continued to read the site. The school had become a powerhouse in both the girls’ and boys’ volleyball teams once they hired a new coach, but it was the girls’ team that really shined. Oikawa leant back into his chair once he saw the picture.

There she was, the second person on the right, clad in grey and pink. She looked almost exactly the same back then as she did now, the only differences being Yana’s hair was much shorter and she was a little more baby-faced. _She looks cuter than me,_ Oikawa lamented. Yana looked like she belonged in a blanket burrito instead of a volleyball match with how soft she seemed. He clicked on the ‘members and positions’ list for a closer look.

**STARTING ORDER**

**_Yamagata Aoi, #1 – Left Wing Spiker (Third year)_ **

**_Miura Rin, #2 – Setter (Third year)_ **

**_Nakajima Aki, #4 – Left Wing Spiker (First year)_ **

**_Iwaizumi Yana, #8 – Libero (First year)_ **

**_Sawa Eiko, #11 – Right Wing Spiker (First year)_ **

**_Oshima Chou, #13 – Middle Blocker (First year)_ **

“Iwaizumi Yana, #8 – Libero.” She wasn’t some bench warmer Libero either, she was part of the starting order. All the first years were. The fact that these little first years’ replaced most of the third-year students and all of the second-year students was incredible. _Three-time champions… That means the team won the inter-high, spring tournament and nationals, they steamrolled their opponents. They must have had some crazy first years._ Oikawa ran his fingers through his swept back hair. He was speechless. Yana had been to nationals twice and won both of them. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t just the slightest bit jealous. Oikawa clicked a link on the school webpage that led him to an interview video with each individual member. He didn’t care so much about the other members, so he skipped the video till he reached Yana’s portion.

**~~~**

**How long have you been playing volleyball?**

_“I’ve been playing since I was five, I actually met my two first and best friends because of volleyball.”_

**Do you enjoy volleyball?**

_“Of course!” Yana laughed cheerfully. “Why else would I play? I absolutely love the game.”_

**_You play Libero, what is it like?_ **

_Yana exaggerated her sigh, “It’s a lot of diving if I'm being totally honest with you, but it’s fun pretending like I'm a penguin.” Her demeanor suddenly changed back to amusement. “Despite all that, I’m glad I play this role. It may not be as flashy as an Ace, or as cool as a Setter or even as noteworthy as a Blocker, but I like it.”_

**_Why is that?_ **

_“It’s not just a position made so short people can play volleyball. It’s my job as a Libero to keep the rally going for as long as I can. If I have the back covered, then all my teammates have to do is look ahead and do their best.”_

**The team members seem very close. You first years’ especially, is it true you’ve been playing with your fellow first years since middle school?**

_“Yeah, it’s actually pretty surprising that we all ended up on the same team till highschool. I’m definitely not complaining though. But it’s not just them. The third years and second years have been very kind and supported us despite our inexperience.”_

Oikawa tilted his head, eyebrows furrowed as he continued to watch. The Yana in the video was a little off compared to the Yana-chan he knew. The overly cheerful smiles and enthusiasm just seemed so wrong on her face. Maybe he was looking too much into it, but he didn’t like this Yana-chan as much as the one he knew now.

**Let’s see here, some fans have some questions for you. What is your favorite color?**

_“Green is pretty nice.”_

**What about your favorite candy?**

_“Ohh! Definitely Konpeito, they are just so colorful and yummy.”_

**What got you into volleyball in the first place?**

Yana laughed _“I didn’t want to play basketball.”_

**Any current concerns?**

_“One of my childhood friends has an eternal bedhead.”_

**And one last question. Do you plan to continue playing all through your high school and college years?**

_“Well, I hope so. But you know how the future is. It’s unpredictable. All I can do is hope I play another match.”_


	10. Baby Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yana surrenders to the puppy eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My dog used to chase people on a bike a lot. It got so bad that I had to take his bike away. 
> 
> Enjoy~

By the time Oikawa had finished watching the video it was late evening. The interview had shown an entirely different Yana-chan, but if she really did mean what she said in the interview, then why did she stop playing? Why did she say she didn’t want to have anything to do with volleyball anymore? The two conflicting statements played around in Oikawa’s head.

_“All I can do is hope I play another match.”_

_“I don’t want to have anything to do with volleyball.”_

“Ahhhhh, why do I even care why? It has nothing to do with me anyway” he mussed up his hair as he flopped back on his futon. He just wanted to know what caused such a dramatic shift in perspective. It would be such a waste if he couldn’t convince her to join as their manager, or better yet, to help Watacchi get better as a Libero.

Yana-chan was one of the top Liberos’ he knew, her team won nationals! Who better to teach his teammate? But then again, he couldn’t just ask her to teach Watacchi, that would expose that Oikawa had actively looked up who she was. The label ‘stalker’ would be added to whatever Iwa-chan had already told her, and Oikawa really didn’t want that. _Why is this so much more complicated than asking someone out on a date?_ He would sooner ask Yana-chan out on a date rather than tell her that he basically stalked her volleyball career. “Maybe I’ll see what Iwa-chan thinks first…” He mumbled before he curled up under his blankets.

\-----

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping right now?” Kuroo asked over the phone.

Yana pouted -not that Kuroo could see- “I should be, but I'm trying to find something for this damn senior project.”

“Isn’t like, due at the end of the year?” Kuroo pinched the bridge of his nose. “What the hell kind of project are you doing that you don’t have time to procrastinate? You always procrastinate.”

“Aliens. We have to convince some of the class that aliens do exist. Aliens, Kuroo. Fuckin, I don’t even believe aliens are real myself!” Yana threw her free hand up as she paced around in her room. “How am I supposed to do that? It’s just so goddamn stupid! What kind of supporting ‘articles’ can we even get when half of the content we sift through is either opinion or bogus? Oh, you know what? Maybe both!”

“Your toxicity is showing Shortstop.” Kuroo rolled his eyes, He only ever used the nickname Kenma had come up with when they were all still in elementary together for moments like these. He had to admit, it suited her, being a short Libero and all.

“But my partner. He is so….so…aghh” She struggled to find the right word to describe Oikawa, but nothing really came to mind. He was infuriating but at the same time he could hold pleasant conversation. His persistence -when applied correctly- was an incredible asset for him. She couldn’t hate Oikawa, instead she found herself finding his company just the tiniest bit amusing. She would never admit such things to him though.

“Your partner? Who is he?”

“Oikawa Tooru, pretty boy captain of the volleyball team and Hajime’s best friend. A very tiresome and charismatic person – his fanclub is enough testament to that. Hajime tends to keep him in line, but he can’t always be there to hold the reins.” Yana suddenly found the words that seemed to suit Oikawa a little too well. “Flirtatious, smug, talented and outwardly flippant.” _A Volleyball addicted maniac who works too hard._ She left that last part out though.

Kuroo furrowed his eyebrows displeased. This Oikawa seemed like trouble and it irked him. Kuroo wasn’t the type to judge someone before he met them, but he was wary of anyone who could potentially hurt his friends. Kenma and Yana specifically. Yana wasn’t always the greatest judge of character which led to some very two-faced friendships, if you could even call them that at all. “If he does anything, tell me. Ok?” Kuroo refused to let anything happen. Not again. He was the oldest and tallest out of the three, so clearly -as the most responsible one- he needed to keep on his toes.

Yana smiled a little on her side of the phone. Kenma and Kuroo would throw hands if anything happened. “I will. Don’t worry.”

“It’s because you say that, that I worry.”

“Don’t you have any faith in me?”

Kuroo answered without hesitation. “I have as much faith in you as I do with letting Kenma eat on his own. Little to none.”

“…I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not…” Yana gasped dramatically.

“That wasn’t a compliment.” He rubbed his forehead. “You know what? Just go to sleep! Good night.”

“Pft, nighty nighty, sweet dreams” Yana hung up her phone then placed it on the charger. She wasn’t going to get any more research done so she closed her laptop and tucked herself into bed.

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY-----**

It hadn’t even been ten minutes till Yana and Hajime entered the gym when Watari ran up to them. “Please teach me how to be a better Libero!” He pleaded earnestly to Yana. “I want to be able to tell my teammates with confidence that I have their backs!”

Yana and Hajime looked at each other before Yana turned back to Watari with an answer, “Um, don’t you have a coach for that? I’m not exactly qualified to teach you anything.”

“Please! Our coach is a good teacher for sure, but he doesn’t always have time to help all of us out individually. Just the little scraps of advice you gave me a few days ago were already a big help.” Watari gave his best puppy eyes. He earnestly wanted to learn and improve. “I…I really like the team we have right now – the third years especially. I want to help bring the team to nationals!”

Yana huffed not wanting to agree. She remembered the first time she went to nationals. The huge stadium was nothing like the school gyms. The blinding lights from the tall ceiling illuminated the wooden floor, the polish adding to its shine. Every quickstep left a high pitch squeaking sound from the volleyball shoes which only added to the symphony of cheers and team call outs. It was deafening. There was no way to properly describe the feeling of when you first walk into the building as a competitor. It’s a different kind of anticipation than what a normal game would give, once you enter the court the unnecessary noise is muffled out, fear morphs into excitement and the adrenaline won’t stop. She had only felt such a wonderful sensation once, every time after that was dulled out and darker.

Yana bit her bottom lip coming back down to earth. There were more pros than there were cons if she did agree to help. Yana was about to say no before she made eye contact with Watari's pleading eyes. She opened her mouth to refuse, but an unfiltered answer came out instead. “Hypothetically, if I did help teach you, would I need to do anything else? Manager duties and whatnot.”

“I don’t think there would be anything else. Maybe? I’ll probably have to ask the coach first. Hold on.” Watari quickly ran off to the other side of the court to ask the coach for permission. Yana didn’t have to wait long before Watari came back with two people in tow.

The younger looking of the pair was the first to introduce himself, though if his receding ash -blonde hair was any indication he was probably in his early thirties. “I am Mizoguchi Sadayuki. Second Coach of this team.”

The other man had black hair and dark eyes to match. He was a bit shorter and certainly larger in build compared to Mizoguchi. The only thing he had in common with the other coach -appearance wise- was the turquoise and white tracksuit they both donned. “I am Irihata Nobuteru. I am the head coach. Pleased to meet you.”

Yana took his hand and shook it. Between the two coaches, Irihara seemed more laidback and confident in his team, whereas Mizoguchi was more serious looking. He was confident in the team; he was just the hardass coach out of the pair. 

“I hear that Watari’s sudden improvement came from some advice you shared to him.”

Out of habit Yana stood up straighter, her feet shoulder length apart pointed outwards at a slight angle and her hands behind her back, thumbs interlocked. “Yes, sir.” One of the lessons her demon coach had taught them was how to stand ‘at ease’. He wasn’t a military man by any means, but he just liked structure. If the coach were to address the team while inside the gym, they were required to stand perfectly. If they were outside of the gym, during match time, or right after a match, they would be free to stand however they pleased. 

Both coaches raised an eyebrow, they weren’t expecting such a rigid response from a highschool student. “What makes you think you are qualified to teach him?”

“I may not be as qualified as you, sir. Forgive my arrogance, but I would like to share my knowledge with your Libero. It will be beneficial in the long run I can assure you.” This was Oikawa’s and Hajime’s last year to aim for nationals. Their last chance. It didn’t really matter if the coaches agreed or disagreed, Yana had decided she was going to help Watari no matter what. She had decided that within the last ten seconds. Besides it’s not like she was going to stay till the end of the year. At most it would only take a few months for him to learn. Heck, maybe less than! "May I have permission to help him, sir?"


	11. Match Point

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yana plays one set  
> The coach evaluates her playing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You haven't experienced awkward till you try tickle someone who isn't ticklish.
> 
> Happy reading!

The two coaches thought it over. Irihara seemed rather intrigued by the small girl. It was true that they had nothing to lose if she wanted to help out. Mizoguchi on the other hand was skeptical. Who was she that she considered herself so great that she could teach one of the members better than he could? He mulled it over in his head for a bit, he didn’t want to outright dismiss her as she might actually be a worthwhile student assistant but at the same time he didn’t just want to agree. Mizoguchi decided on some kind of test to make sure she could back her claims up.

“As you know we can’t just agree, however why don’t you prove your Libero capabilities in a single set? We have enough members for two full teams. We can choose the teams at random. What do you say?”

“If it will convince you to allow me to assist you then I will happily oblige.” Yana dropped her stance now that she was no longer being questioned. She looked down at the wood floored court, “Oh, but I’ll need to quickly grab my volleyball shoes and sport uniform. I don’t live too far; I’ll be right back.” She left her bag on the ground for Hajime to deal with as she ran back to get her stuff. A feeling she knew all too well buzzed in her chest.

\--------

“Kenma!” Kuroo called for his friend as soon as Kenma walked out his door. “Did you sleep last night?”

“Yes” Kenma answered confidently.

Kuroo crossed his arms over his chest, his raven colored hair in its usual bedhead. “Why was your light on at two in the morning?”

“How do you even know that?” Kenma narrowed his eyes at Kuroo before he took out his smartphone and began to play. “I slept. I just woke up early.”

They began their walk to school, Kuroo easily keeping the almost one-sided conversation going. “…And then she said, ‘Aliens’”

“Her project is to convince people that aliens exist?” Kenma was a bit of a skeptic. As much as he considered it cool, Kenma never believed that sci-fi and fantasy creatures could ever exist. It just wasn’t possible.

Kuroo gave Kenma a sly grin. “Next thing you know she’ll be all conspiracy theorist with a tinfoil hat and everything.”

“No.” Kenma sped up his walking pace and sent a quick text to Yana without Kuroo’s knowledge.

**_Kenma:_ ** _No tinfoil hats._

\-------

**_Yana:_ ** _Um, ok?_

Yana shoved her phone into her bag as she finished changing. Her tracksuit didn’t look too bad on her. The bright teal shirt was a little too much for her liking but apart from that it was fine, no loose flappy parts, nothing too tight or too big. It was a good fit. Yana sat down and rolled up the bottom of her white and teal track pants as far as they could go, which was unfortunately not very high. It was only able to reach mid shin, but something was better than nothing. Yana’s kneepads wouldn’t fit over her pants, so she decided to just not wear them instead. She knew she would regret the decision but that was for later. Yana pulled on her long elbow pads before she looked down at her volleyball shoes. Yana never thought she would put them on ever again.

_I thought I was done with volleyball. Why am I doing this now? I don’t owe Oikawa or Hajime anything. You barely even know them. What does it matter if they win or lose? Their libero can always look up on the internet how to improve his playstyle. Why are you doing this?_ Yana’s head flooded with little voices as her ears rang from the sheer noise they made.

_“Please teach me how to be a better Libero!”_

_“I want to be able to tell my teammates with confidence that I have their backs!”_

_“I want to help bring them to nationals!”_

Yana clicked her tongue in annoyance. She couldn’t reject his request, so she ended up being swept along with the flow. Yana shoved her feet into her neon yellow volleyball shoes. They were a little scuffed, but they felt good on her feet. Shoes that she had long since broken in, Shoes that she thought she would never use again. It was something so insignificant, but it made all the difference.

\-----

“Hello. I'm Iwaizumi Yana. You can just call me Yana if it gets too confusing for you.” She greeted her team with a pleasant smile and a wave. It was unfortunate that she didn’t have Hajime on her team but what could she do? It was a random picking after all. “I'm not sure what strategy you all use in your school, and I'm sure you don’t know mine. But I like to believe our plan is much simpler.” Yana looked at #6, Yahaba Shigeru – the second setter and pinch server of Seijoh. “All I need you to do is set things up for our attackers. And for you attackers, I want you to just keep attacking as much as you can.

“But what about...?”

Yana shrugged in a matter of fact manner, this was game time and her switch was flipped. “I’ll catch every single ball and I promise to save every rally, all you need to do is look forward and attack with everything you’ve got. Whatever attacking strategy you guys want to use, you can. I will take the back row and cover when needed. You all won't need to dive at all.” She dismissed the team huddle and finished off the last of her warm-up. The strategy was what her Tokyo team used in nationals. If it worked then, it’ll work now. Yana took a deep breath. “Don’t let the ball drop.”

“Match start!”

#2, _Matsukawa was it?_ started off the set with a strong serve. The trajectory of the ball slightly curved to the left. In that split second before the ball touched her forearms, every nerve in her body felt electrified. With practiced ease, Yana bumped the ball right up towards the setter in a perfect arc. Yahaba managed to toss the ball up cleanly as Kindaichi slammed the ball in a spike. Despite the power he was able to put into the spike, the opposite team’s blockers were able to push the ball back.

Yana smoothly dived forward and tapped the ball upwards for the next person to get, immediately she was back on her feet and out of the way for her teammates. The same set and spike happened once more but this time Kindaichi was able to hit the ball past the net and onto the ground.

\------

Oikawa had arrived a little after Yana had changed into her tracksuit. He had asked the coach what was going on that they allowed someone not on the team to join in a practice match. From what the coach had told him, Yana agreed to help Watacchi, naturally they weren’t too sure of her skills, so they made a practice match to see if she was qualified -in terms of skill- to teach their Libero. Oikawa hid his shock with a playful smile. _I thought she would say ‘no’ without hesitation._

Oikawa watched Yana closely, he had found some videos of Yana’s team, but he hadn’t had the time to watch them yet. She made every single save, she never missed any of the receives. It was ridiculous. Oikawa thought Yana would at least fumble some of them. Oikawa looked at the scoreboard, it was twenty to twelve with Yana’s team in the lead. In terms of team composition Iwa-chan’s team was a little more well off and had more regulars whereas Yana’s team had mostly new or benched members.

There was something a little odd about Yana’s team that Oikawa couldn’t quite figure out. The coach appeared beside him and as if reading Oikawa’s mind, he spoke. “She is shouldering the entire defense and not letting the team assist her.”

“What?”

The coach never took his eyes off the match. “Yana has caught almost all of the receives and saved every single cover. Most of the points they lost were actually from her teammates. In this entire game we have never seen anyone else from her side have to dive for anything. This game has been going on for thirty minutes with no timeouts.”

Oikawa furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Isn’t that ideal though? It’s the most effective in terms of energy saving.”

“While that is true, look.”

\-------

Yana gasped for air. Twenty-three to twenty with her team still going strong. She wiped the sweat off her jaw with her shoulder. She focused on the ball and the sting of her forearms. Hajime had some mean serves. Yana felt her gym uniform stick to her body making it harder to move. She had never played a volleyball match in anything other than a volleyball uniform and now she knew why. The trackpants were overly hot and restricted her speed and her cloth t-shirt clung and chaffed. Yana hadn’t felt this uncomfortable in a long time.

The ball was slammed into the center of their court and out of reflex she once more dived down to save it. _I can’t let the ball drop. I can’t let the rally end. I can’t lose a point_. Her body throbbed and her chest felt constricted, it was a feeling she had become well acquainted with during her first year of highschool. Save after save. Pass after pass. It felt like an eternity before they finally reached match point. Twenty-four to twenty-two. The ringing in her ears turned into whispers chanting words she had heard too many times before. 

_‘It’s your fault we lost. You’re a Defense Specialist, a Libero, can’t you do your job right?’_ the voice giggled _._

Yana grit her teeth as she lowered her stance in anticipation for the serve. The match was going to end. They were going to get the next point. 

The voice in her head hissed, _‘Match point! Don’t you dare screw this up.’_ Her eyes locked onto the server and more importantly the ball.

\-----

After watching the last few points Oikawa saw what the coach had implied. Yana’s range of defense was far too wide for one person. Just because she could reach every single ball, didn’t mean that she had to. That’s what teammates are for, to help.

The coach shook his head. “She will miss the next serve.”

“How do you know?” Oikawa looked up at his coach. He made a very bold prediction without hesitation.

“Her form is unsteady because her legs and knees are trembling. She doesn’t seem to be used to longer than usual games.”

Just as the coach predicted, as soon as Hajime’s serve was sent over and towards Yana, it spun out of her receive and blew her arms to the side. The ball broke through the defense.


	12. Lunchbox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Results of the match  
> Aiko and Rini   
> Upcoming practice match

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Help stamp out, eliminate and abolish redundancy!
> 
> Enjoy!

Yana missed a serve. She lost a point. _It’s all my fault._ Twenty-four to Twenty-three. Yana swallowed as she felt her arms burn. She mumbled a quiet ‘sorry’ as the court went silent. She hadn’t missed anything all match except that last serve.

“Don’t worry. It’s still match point.” Kindaichi gave her a hard pat on the back which caused Yana to wince a little.

“Ouch.”

“One more.” Yahaba added with another pat. “It’s the homestretch.”

Yana nodded and once more the team took their positions. She released a long exhale before she looked back at the server. _One more._ She bent down with just enough renewed vigor to give her a solid stance.

Hajime stretched and prepared to serve. This time he put a little more power into it as he slammed it over the net to the back left of the court. Yana connected with the ball and it flew upwards still staying on their side of the court. The set was a little shaky but Shido managed to hit the ball with enough force to get over the net.

Much to Yana’s dismay the other team managed to return the ball to their side of the court. Unfortunately, as soon as it came over the first touch of the ball went to the setter.

Yana called out to her team. She took a large step before she hopped from the back line and set the ball midair for the spikers to take “Hit it!”

Yuda slammed the ball down to the free spot of their opponent’s court. It hit the floor with a bang.

“Twenty-five to twenty-three. Game end.”

The team celebrated their little victory. They thoroughly enjoyed the practice match. Yana quietly walked over to her team after she had caught her breath. Yana apologized. “I'm sorry.” She looked down at her feet. “I should have been able to return it cleanly.”

Yahaba frowned. “Why are you apologizing for that? It’s normal to miss a few balls.”

“I have to catch all the balls. It’s my only job. That’s what my role is for. If I don’t... If I don’t pick them up…”

“What’ll happen if you don’t? We lose one point. It’s just one.”

“But…”

“No buts” The coach was looming beside the small team huddle. “I admit you do have more than enough skill to help teach our Libero, but you need to allow your team to do more. You can rely on them a little bit. You can’t and don’t have to pick up every single ball yourself.” He had heard a certain team from nationals used that as their main strategy, but he never found out which school “What team were you on before?”

“Shōsha Academy, Girls’ Volleyball”

The coach simply nodded. “I see.”

“So, did I pass?”

“Oh, Yes. You may join as a student coach assistant. You won’t have to do any of the manager duties since you will be helping with the team. I look forward to working with you.” He handed her a club application form.

She smiled just the smallest amount as she filled out the form hastily. “I'm totally going to regret this after.”

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER MORNING PRACTICE-----**

Class six had a substitute teacher that day since their main teacher was home sick. Naturally with a substitute teacher the students were a little rowdier and somehow managed to convince the teacher that ‘we always work on our senior projects in the morning’. Which gave Oikawa the perfect opportunity to get his answers.

“You’re a really good Libero. Did your team go to nationals?” Of course, Oikawa knew the answer, but she didn’t know that he did.

Yana had long since given up hiding the fact that she was on a team once she agreed to the practice match in the first place, especially since now she was an official club member. “Yes, we went quite a few times actually.”

“Wow that’s so cool. Your team must have been really strong, huh?

“Very.” Yana deadpanned, still trying to write the ideas.

“Why did you quit?” Oikawa fiddled with his pencil, bored.

“I don’t like it much anymore.”

“Why”

“I dunno.” Yana lied smoothly

Oikawa was a little bothered by her one-line answers but tried to press on anyway. It was faster than trying to figure it out himself. “Do you like the sport?”

“Once upon a time I did.”

“Did you like your team?”

Yana put her pencil down and looked Oikawa dead in the eye. The conversation was over. Yana didn’t even need to say anything for him to get the message. “Let’s focus on the project. We have a lot to do for this topic.”

Oikawa nodded. He had unintentionally hit a sore spot. If he was anyone but him, he perhaps would have stopped prying right then and there. But he was Oikawa, he wanted to know. He had to know. Oikawa looked out the window up at the clear sky. _How do I go about doing that?_

\-----

Thankfully after she had forcefully ended the topic Oikawa focused on his own portion of the research and never brought the topic up again. The class was dismissed, it was finally lunch. “Yana! Aiko!”

Yana knew that bubbly voice anywhere. Yana waved to Rini with a smile. “Careful! Don’t run.” Just as Yana finished her sentence Rini tripped about to fall face first. Thankfully she was caught by none other than Aiko.

Rini blushed and slowly regained her balance to stand up. “Thank you…” Rini felt butterflies in her stomach. “S-so how are you both?”

“I'm good”

“Hungry” Aiko sighed.

Rini’s face lit up in excitement. “Aiko!” She took a bento box out of her bag and handed it to him. “I-uh, made too much this morning and thought it’d be a waste not to share!” Her ears were bright red, but her cheeks only had a pink dusting.

Aiko gratefully took the lunchbox from her. He was touched. Even thought there were just extra’s she had chosen to give the box to him. He had wanted to taste her food for a while since her meals always looked delicious. “Thank you, Rini. I’ll really enjoy this.”

“I-I'm glad!” She squeaked. “I hope you like it”

“If it’s from you, I'm sure it’ll be delightful.”

Yana made eye contact with Rini and smirked. She knew what was up. There was no way that Rini ‘accidentally made too much’. Every day since Yana started school Rini always made the perfect amount for herself. It didn’t take a genius to know that Rini had specifically made extra for Aiko. She was head over heels for the guy.

Rini knew that Yana had found out about her plan and blushed even more. Though, Rini was aware she wasn’t being subtle about her feelings. Somehow Aiko just didn’t notice Rini’s advances. Rini was determined to try as many things as she could to try to win him over. She read in a magazine last night that the best way to a guy’s heart was through his stomach. Rini decided that was another thing she would try; it sounded less crazy than some of the other things she had seen in magazines.

“Let’s go find a place to sit, shall we?”

\-------

“Will you be ok before the practice game with Karasuno?” Matsukawa asked.

Oikawa grinned and put up a peace sign. “Probably. It’s just a sprain so it isn’t too major. Don’t worry Mattsun!”

“Oi, if you go to practice and you aren’t fully healed yet, I’ll hit you.” Iwa-chan threatened with a glare. Oikawa knew he actually would follow through on his threat like he had done many times before.

“Yes, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa replied with a wink.

Iwa-chan nodded, as troublesome as Oikawa was, he knew that at the very least he would wait till he was fully healed before trying anything. If it was something about volleyball, the chances are, that he would be more inclined to be sensible…mostly.

“Oh! Iwa-chan, you didn’t tell me that Yana-chan used to be on a volleyball team!” Oikawa pouted.

“Honestly, I had no idea she was. I only knew that she could play.”

Oikawa nodded, Iwa-chan probably didn’t know the reason why Yana-chan would quit if that was the case. Oikawa was a volleyball obsessed maniac; he couldn’t quite grasp why someone so good at the game, who has been playing for years would just up and quit. He would understand if it was an injury, but Yana wouldn’t have been so against telling him if it was.

**_-_ ** **\----AFTERSCHOOL PRACTICE-----**

“No, no you forgot posture, remember?”

Watari shifted his stance down making his center of gravity lower than usual. He had most of the basics down but sometimes he would go back to old habits. It’s exactly how they say, old habits die hard. For most of the practice Yana had somehow roped some of his teammates in to come serve or spike the ball so he could try to hit them back. He got considerably better at returning and stopping balls but Watari knew it wasn’t quite enough to help carry the team to nationals. He had seen how much the third years’ wanted to win, so it was only right that as an underclassman he would help them achieve their goal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lowkey feel myself becoming more and more invested in Aiko and Rini's romance.


	13. King of the Court

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two schools meet  
> Yana gives directions   
> Pre-match nerves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to finish other people's sentences because...my version is better
> 
> Happy reading!

It had been a grand total of two days since Yana’s first practice match, Oikawa and Hajime didn't really worry too much about her mixing in with their team. She was just as charismatic as Oikawa was but thankfully, less annoying. Yana had managed to win over the entire team and even some of the fangirls. While the team were expected to like her, the fangirls were not. Oikawa had asked his fangirls why she was so popular. Turns out, that there has been more than one incident where she had saved someone from something -usually falling. Naturally, when those people found out Yana was in the volleyball team, they had to see what she was like on court. Yana didn't look pretty on court or even cute for that matter. She was focused on the gameplay and teaching, which apparently made her look 'cool'. Which would explain why Yana had more female fangirls than male ones. Oikawa wasn't the slightest bit salty about that. Not at all.

"Have you seen Kindaichi and Yahaba?" Iwa-chan asked.

"I think I heard something about quickly getting some fresh air. I'll go find them and tell them to come back." Yana quickly scampered off. She had long since been given her volleyball uniform. It was pretty similar to the girls’ volleyball team uniform to be honest.

Yana's chocolate colored hair was tied up in a high ponytail, which swished back and forth as she ran. The shorts she wore were the same white as the girls’ volleyball team. She always wore her volleyball club jacket open which revealed her teal, fitted t-shirt and a white whistle dangling around her neck. Oikawa found himself deciding that he liked it on her. She actually looked the part of 'student coach' now.

\--------

"That's the highschool he attends right? The 'King of the court'?" Yahaba asked as the pair slowly made their way back to the gym. They had met up outside by coincidence, so they decided to walk back together.

"Who? Oh! Yeah. Kageyama and I went to middle school together." Kindaichi pursed his lips as if tasting something sour. "He is an egocentric king with no aptitude in teamwork.”

Yahaba nodded thoughtfully. “Huh. I wonder how Karasuno will do today, especially with Kageyama. Honestly, all I remember about Karasuno is that their manager is really hot.”

“Wait, seriously?!”

“Yeah! But I also heard that there is this other guy who walks around with a permanent scowl on his face. Apparently, he is a real idiot.” Yahaba snickered. He wasn’t sure how true those rumors were, but he was looking forward to seeing this pretty manager.

Before Kindaichi could reply, a shaved head and a face that looked like the gangster version on Watari popped around the corner. Four students clad in black came into view. It was Karasuno. Kindaichi and Yahaba looked at the four awkwardly not knowing what to say or do.

“If you look down on us like that…” The Watari lookalike glared, his voice low. “We’ll chew you up and spit you out.” As if on cue the crow in the tree cawed.

The tallest out of the four students was the next to speak up. “You shouldn’t really intimidate the small things like that, Tanaka.” He looked towards Kindaichi and Yahaba, sizing them up before he gave them a sly grin. “Look, you’ve frightened the ‘Elites’. He added emphasis on the last word mocking them. “Don’t be too scared now. We don’t bite on good days.” He pushed his glasses up slightly, the breeze gently ruffling his blonde hair.

“Psh, w-we aren’t scared of you.” Kindaichi glared. Before he could say more another person ran out from behind the corner.

“What are you guys doing? I looked away and you all disappeared!” The fifth Karasuno member gripped the shoulders of Tanaka and the tall blonde. “I’m very sorry about them.”

All the student’s looked up to another voice. “Yahaba! Kindaichi! Where are you?"

\--------

Yana called for both the boys as she walked around the outside of the gym hoping they were close by enough for them to hear her. At first, she thought maybe they’d be trying to scout out the ‘enemy’ team but then she realized that this was Kindaichi and Yahaba she was talking about. It’s most likely that Yahaba went to see if the other team had a cute manager then somehow ended up roping Kindaichi into it.

“Yahaba! Kindaichi! Where are you?" Yana called; this time louder than the last. Yana grumbled then not even a few paces later, she saw them on her left. “You guys! Hajime is looking for you” Yana walked closer to the pair then noticed the five other students. “Oh.” She quickly assessed the scene. There was a Watari lookalike and a tall guy with glasses who both were held on by a shorter student with brown hair -He seemed to have a more dependable presence than the others. But if Yana were just comparing auras then without a doubt the winner was the black-haired student with a scowl on his face.

“Did they cause you any trouble? I’m so sorry if they did.”

“No, no. It wasn’t them. Our team has a couple of guys who like to rile people up.” The brown-haired student gave an affable smile and held out his hand. “I'm Sawamura, Karasuno’s team captain. Nice to meet you.”

Yana returned the smile with one of his own. _That’s why he seems so reliable. He is the captain._ She took his hand and shook. “I’m Iwaizumi Yana, nice to meet you too! We have another Iwaizumi on our team so you can just call me Yana, so it doesn’t get too confusing.” Yana chirped. “This turnip haired guy here is Kindaichi, and this soft looking guy is Yahaba.” She gestured to the two boys. 

“What?! Yana! I don’t have turnip hair!” Kindaichi protested.

“I don’t look soft!” Yahaba added.

“This here is Tanaka” Sawamura gestured to the Watari lookalike, “And the saltshaker here is Tsukishima.” Sawamura moved to the side slightly revealing one more student whose defining feature was the little flyaway hair and freckle dappled face. “This is Yamaguchi.”

_Oh god, I almost didn’t notice him. How do I not notice someone that tall?!_ Yana panicked internally, her face not giving anything away.

The Captain gestured to the last student as the remainder of the Karasuno students appeared behind them. “This is Kage…”

“Kageyama.” Kindaichi interrupted. “It’s been a while, your highness. What sort of dictatorship do you run nowadays, hm?”

Everyone froze as they stared each other down waiting for what would happen next. The tension was almost suffocating as Kageyama opened his mouth to reply, “Keep your eyes open then you’ll see.” He held his head high as he walked off with the rest of the Karasuno team.

“Tch, look at him pretending to be a nice guy.” Kindaichi grumbled.

The three Aoba Johsai students stayed still for another second. Yana was the first to move. “Don’t just pick fights like that.” She rolled her eyes and gave Kindaichi a noogie as the trio walked back to the gym. “Let’s go. Hajime is probably going to be upset that we were gone for so long”

\------

Kindaichi and Yahaba had taken a different route to Yana but promised that they would be back in time for the game. She had come across another student from Karasuno. This one however, was little shorter than herself with fluffy orange hair and looked absolutely wretched. “Hey, are you ok?”

“Y-Yes” He squeaked. His whole body was visibly trembling, and she could have sworn she saw his hair puff up on edge.

Yana had never seen someone so nervous before a match before. She attempted to keep his mind off the current situation. “My name is Iwaizumi, what about yours?

“Hinata…First year”

“You’re already a starting member? How cool. What position do you play?”

Hinata’s copper brown eyes started to sparkle. “I’m a middle blocker! It’s a position meant for tall people, but…but they gave it to me so I'm going to try my best!”

Yana smiled, “That’s good. But you won’t be able to play unless you go back there now, the match is starting soon,”

Hinata’s eyes widened “What?!” he looked around frantically, he didn’t want to be late. He wanted to play. He remembered turnip head’s words and shuddered. He couldn’t mess up.

“Down the hall and to the left.”

“Thank you! Bye!” Hinata waved before he quickly ran off to the court.

Yana slowly began to walk there herself. She hid her hands in her jacket pockets as she couldn’t help but grin. Yana had been told at one point that she was mischievous, but she would much rather say she had an eye for fun, and this was certainly an opportunity for fun. _A short middle blocker and a genius setter, I wonder what Karasuno has planned for us today._


	14. Hit or Miss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Match start  
> Karasuno has a rocky start  
> Oikawa appears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sure, I'd love to help you out...now,which way did you come in?
> 
> Happy Reading!

“The practice match between Karasuno High and Aoba Johsai will now begin!”

Both teams took their positions. “Let’s have a good game.” Though Yana had only officially joined the club a few days ago, she had been watching the boys during morning and afterschool practice for at least a week, so she liked to think she got a pretty good grasp on some of their strengths and weaknesses.

For the team's starting order, they had Kindaichi and Matsukawa as the Middle Blockers. Kunimi, Hanamaki and Hajime were the Wing Spikers and Watari was the Libero. With Oikawa both injured and missing, the team had gone with Yahaba as their setter. Yana believed that currently their team had a pretty good line up, but then again, she had never seen them in a practice game against another school. She just hoped none of the first years were too nervous.

Yana looked at Karasuno’s team next. Tanaka, Sawamura and some other student she hadn’t yet seen were the Wing Spikers. Kageyama was the setter -which was expected since they were only holding this match because of Kageyama. And finally, Tsukishima and Hinata were the two Middle Blockers. The tallest and smallest players on the team. Assuming she remembered their names correctly of course.

Yana took her seat on the bench next to the coach and took a few gulps of her water. The match began with their side as the starting serve.

“Sawamura!” Kageyama called for Karasuno’s team captain to receive the ball. Sawamura got into position but before the ball made contact with his forearms Hinata intercepted it and sent the ball flying in the wrong direction. "Ennoshita!"

The guy wearing #3 -Ennoshita- quickly sent the ball forward again safely to Tanaka for a spike. Kindaichi, Hanamaki and Kunimi were prepared and blocked the ball with ease. The first point went to Seijoh.

"You idiot! That was obviously not your ball!" Kageyama yelled at Hinata.

Though Yana's heart did go out to the tiny orange ball of energy she also cringed with every single mistake he made. He bumped into Tanaka, leapt into Kageyama and sent the ball off course more times in a single game than she had seen in a month. It was painful to watch.

"Karasuno time out!"

Both teams walked back to the bench and picked up their water bottles. “They really aren't that big a deal, huh?" Yahaba shrugged to Kindaichi after he had finished emptying out his water bottle.

"If I’m being totally honest with you, I think it's just Hinata who is screwing up. Nerves maybe?"

"The orange one?" Hajime asked.

It just occurred to Yana that Hajime didn't know any names -barring Kageyama. But at this point who didn't know Kageyama? "Yeah, the orange one"

The coach began to deconstruct both teams. He pointed out the flaws and positives of their current set up and new possible game plans. Even though it wasn’t an official match it was important to learn from every game and aim to win.

Everyone huddled up in a cramped circle. "Wanna do the honors?" Matsukawa asked, knowing how much Yana hated leading the huddle. Every so often -a little too often in Yana’s opinion- Matsukawa would convince her to start the huddle because she cringed at it the most. It was amusing.

“This is only a practice match though; we don’t need to do this at all.” Yana protested. All eyes were on her, but no one responded. She clicked her tongue. "I hate all of you." Yana cleared her throat. Yana visibly cringed while her teammates tried to hold back their snickers. "Seijoh! Rule the court!"

"YEAHHHH!"

The students heard the whistle indicating that the break was over. It was Karasuno’s turn to serve for the match point. “Let’s take back our points one at a time. We can do th-” Karasuno’s Captain stopped mid-sentence. It was Hinata’s turn to serve. When he fumbled the serve, no one was really surprised. When the ball went flying and hit the back of Kageyama’s head there were four different reactions. Surprise, amusement, anger and absolute terror.

Yana took a quick glance at Karasuno’s side to see what happened. She was thankful for the opportunity to watch everything go down. It was unfortunate she couldn’t hear what they were saying but the actions alone were plenty entertaining.

“First set goes to Aoba Johsai.”

Yana sighed as she watched, she was getting antsy just sitting around. Just as she was going to come up with some excuse to tell the coach she needed to take a quick walk around the gym, Hinata dashed towards the net _. A quick set? They didn’t do that in the first round. Maybe a decoy?_ Yana’s eyes widened as she watched Kageyama’s toss fly directly towards Hinata who missed the spike. _Did he miss?_ Yana picked up the ball that rolled to her feet and passed it to Matsukawa. Another serve. 

As soon as the ball was back in Kageyama’s possession he set it right back up more accurately than the last time. The right and center attackers began to move, while the left attacker remained open. _Who are you going to use?_

Faster than Yana could react, the ball suddenly slammed down on Seijoh’s side of the court. “What.” Yana found herself standing in awe. She had seen a lot of different kinds of quick sets but never something that fast. Even if she played as Libero, Yana had no doubt she would definitely have missed that attack.

The sound of volleyball shoes squeaking against the floor seemed to become more frequent as the players ran faster. Kindaichi and Matsukawa jumped up at the same time as Hinata in an attempt to stop the quick attack.

“I’ve been waiting for this!” Tanaka shouted from the other side of the court. He spiked the volleyball down as hard and fast as he could to beat Yahaba’s block.

Yana quickly stood up and made a ‘T’ shape with her hands. “Aoba Johsai time out.”

“Oi, Kindaichi. Kageyama is different from what you said.” Yahaba grumbled before he took a few gulps from his newly refilled water bottle.

Kindaichi wiped some of his sweat away with a small towel. “It’s my first time seeing him like this. I didn't think there was a spiker out there fast enough to match his crazy tosses.”

“Wrong.” This time it was the coach who spoke up. “Kageyama is matching his tosses to that Spiker. He is tossing the ball to #5 with such pinpoint accuracy that all the Spiker has to do is swing downwards with as much power and speed as he can muster. No matter where the jump is, Kageyama’s toss will be there.”

Yana grimaced. “That sounds a little too close to anime level skills for comfort.”

“Kageyama… The egotistical, prideful king is working together with someone?” Kunimi muttered incredulously. It was unthinkable for him to do such a thing back in middle school.

“Yes. That Kageyama who values victory among all else has been using his skills to make use of #5’s ability.” The coach chuckled. “Well, at present #5’s skill is only a little better than an amateur. Once they have their combo mastered, it’ll be quite the weapon. “

“Time out over!” The referee whistled.

\-----

The coach sat back down beside Yana. “Kageyama is really quite something.” Yana hadn’t heard of ‘The Egotistical King Kageyama’ till Kindaichi and Kunimi had brought it up one day. She had heard that he had incredible skills, but she wasn’t expecting them to be of this caliber.

“He is indeed.” The coach rubbed his chin as he leant forward, “He isn’t the only threat though. The Spiker with a shaved head lacks composure but he boasts both power and fighting spirit, conversely there is that clever Blocker. He lacks some drive, but he does his job well. The brunt of their offensive, centers around Kageyama and his combo with #5. They may have a defense full of holes, but the captain is there to cover each one.”

Yana was speechless for a moment. She wasn’t expecting an individual analysis on Karasuno. “They sound like a rather mismatched team.”

“That’s what makes them dangerous.” The coach finished just as the second set was won by Karasuno. “This is quite a match.”

\-----

“Wooooow~ One set was stolen out from under us, huh?”

Everyone turned to face the voice they all knew too well. They almost didn’t hear it above the squealing of the fangirls. “How’s the leg?”

“Perfect! I’m all good to come back. It was only a light sprain” He gestured the ‘ok’ sign with his left hand.

“Be more careful next time.” Yana deadpanned. She internally rejoiced that she wouldn’t need to accompany Oikawa as he moved from class to class. She could just let Hajime take care of him again.

“Pshh N-”

Hajime’s eyes narrowed. “If you injure yourself again from doing stupid things, I’ll throw a volleyball at you.”

“But Iwaaaaaaaaa-chaaaan!” Oikawa whined with a pout.

“Nah, if he injures himself again, I’ll just have him work on our senior project.” Yana smirked as she sided with Hajime.

“Both Iwaizumis’ are bullying me!”

“It’s tough love.” Hanamaki added.

Matsukawa snorted “No, it’s called aggressive caring.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have found out a little too late that writing about sport matches are way harder than action scenes. Like what even.


	15. The Grand King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa's coming to play  
> Results of the match   
> Kiyoko appears  
> Oikawa's declaration of war?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The worst part about being a birthday cake is when you are set on fire then eaten by the hero who saved you 
> 
> Happy reading!

It seemed like since Yana came to Seijoh, she had spent too much time somehow interacting with Oikawa. They were in the same class; they were partners for their project, and they were both in the same club. However, despite all their time together she couldn’t quite understand him. One moment Oikawa would be scrolling through something on his phone then the next he would be focusing intently. Sometimes he would act childish and others he would be serious. Yana could have asked Hajime what was up with Oikawa, but she decided against that. Yana didn’t want anyone to find out she was trying to investigate more about the volleyball club Captain lest they label her as a fangirl.

“Yeah, yeah, go warm up. Don’t hurt yourself.” Yana had decided if she was going to spend an unfortunate amount of time with him, she would at least be civil and try to enjoy his company. As alike as he was to _him_ , they weren’t the same person.

Oikawa gasped over dramatically. “Is Yana-chan…worried about me?! What a day to be alive.”

“No.” Yana rubbed her temples not knowing how else to respond. She lost this bout.

Oikawa grinned proudly before he went off to warm up.

\-----

“Noooo, isn’t Oikawa going to play yet?” A girl with pigtails pouted.

The brunette next to her gasped. “Not until he warms up! What if he gets hurt again?”

“I hope he gets to play” Another girl swooned. “He is just so cool”

The Karasuno team heard the fangirls loud and clear. None of them were really that affected – except Tanaka. He clicked his tongue. He wasn’t bothered by the girls who were gushing over how cute this ‘Oikawa’ dude was but rather, he was bothered by Oikawa himself. How dare he be so popular. Putting his anger to good use, Tanaka scored point after point. There was no way he was losing to someone like him.

“Twenty-one to twenty-four. Karasuno is really going for it.” Yana sighed as she watched the game. The coach didn’t reply but instead watched on in silence. 

“Oh dear~ we’re in a pinch, aren’t we?” Oikawa chirped. from behind the pair. “Warm up completed.” He held up a peace sign to the coach, he was visibly excited to play, despite his relatively composed words.

“Aoba Johsai, member change”

Kunimi switched off court with Oikawa with no resistance nor words of encouragement.

_No matter how strong your offensive power is, it means nothing if you can’t pick up the ball._ Oikawa pointed at Tsukishima. _This one is for you._ Oikawa took a few paces, tossed up the ball and leapt. His form was perfect as he slammed the ball down across the court. The ball hurtled into Tsukishima’s forearms then ricocheted off into the viewing stands.

Yana shuddered at the power the serve held. She had received jump serves from Oikawa before, so she had felt the power and the control firsthand. Out of all the serves Yana had needed to receive in her volleyball career, Oikawa’s serves ranked pretty close to the ‘never again’ list. Sure, Oikawa didn’t make the list yet, but with a little polishing he could quite easily make it in.

“I thought so. While I was stretching, I noticed some things~” Oikawa waved to the Karasuno students to get their attention. He pointed to Hinata then to Tsukishima “You guys, aren’t very good at receiving, huh?” Oikawa chirped pleased. “Yana-chan might have mentioned that you #5 are a first year, so I can only assume that you are the same, #6?”

Oikawa didn’t wait for a response. He didn’t need confirmation. He knew he was right. “Here’s another ball coming your way, ok?” Oikawa picked up the ball and once more followed the same sequence. A few paces forward, the ball tossed in the air, a flawless jump and an impossibly hard swing.

\-------

Tsukishima grit his teeth as the ball blew his arms back again. “Dammit…” He looked at the scoreboard. It was twenty-three to twenty-four, the match point still for Karasuno. He didn’t have any excuse for his inability to receive nor a witty remark to his opponent.

Hinata flailed as he stomped towards the net. “Oi! Grand King! Don’t ignore me! Serve to me too!”

“Can you not shout like that? You're being annoying.” Tsukishima clicked his tongue.

Hinata turned to face the team. “It’s just like Tanaka said, Volleyball is a team sport! Everyone on this side of the net are allies, no exceptions!”

Tsukishima was at a loss for words. He just got a lecture from Hinata of all people. He knew he had fallen far if it was Hinata giving the pep talk.

“Alright Tsukishima, go behind me towards the sideline, we can do this.” The Captain stood in the center in a ready position. “Bring it.”

\------

Yana watched intently as the team changed their set up. “Sawamura is trying to expand their defensive area and try cover for the first years.”

The coach nodded for Yana to continue.

“He seems to be trying to get Tsukishima out of Oikawa’s serve zone by putting him in the far back corner.” Yana sighed. “But there is no way…” Oikawa began his serve routine as Yana continued to talk, “…that Sawamura alone will be able to protect everything.”

Despite the small target Oikawa managed to hit the ball directly to Tsukishima, he lost a little power, but his control of the ball increased.

“God, Oikawa is just evil.”

“Chance ball~ hit it hard, ok?”

Oikawa passed the ball to Yahaba who tossed it to Kindaichi. He leapt into the air only to be greeted with Hinata's block. _Crap._ _When did he get here?_

“One touch!” Tanaka yelled as the ball grazed Hinata’s fingers and flew upwards.

No sooner than he landed Hinata pelted himself to the opposite side of the court and jumped as high as his legs could take him. In one fluid motion Kageyama felt the ball and tossed it to Hinata who sent it flying to the ground a little behind Oikawa.

The sound of a slam and end game whistle resounded through the silent gym as everyone took a moment to process what had happened.

“Twenty-three to twenty-five, the game goes to Karasuno highschool.”

A cheer erupts from the crowd.

“What was that?!”

“That was awesome!”

“That was crazy fast”

Coach Irihata clapped a few times before he stood up. “Line up!”

\-------

Both teams met outside the gym and thanked each other in unison. “Thanks for the game!”

Yana watched as their coach and Karasuno’s coach gave each other an awkward handshake. Despite the loss it was a good day. You win some, you lose some but as long as you learn from the encounter it’ll be time well spent.

“I don’t think I ever got to introduce myself. I’m Iwaizumi Yana.” She waved to the only other girl in the vicinity. The girl was wearing a black tracksuit with a single white stripe up the sleeve -not unlike the ones her teammates were wearing.

The girl adjusted her pink rimmed glasses. “I’m Karasuno’s manager, Shimizu Kiyoko. Nice to meet you. Are you Seijoh’s manager?” Shimizu’s shoulder length hair flowed in the soft breeze like ink on parchment, the dark color accented her flawless pale skin and gray eyes. She somehow managed to make a tracksuit look elegant.

Yana laughed; it was only natural that Shimizu would think that, though for some reason it caught Yana off guard. “Nah, we don’t have a manager. I'm a student coach in training! Well, until I'm unneeded that is.” She shrugged. “What is it like being Karasuno’s manager?”

“Well, they can be tr-”

“Yana!”

“Kiyoko!”

Both girls turned to the sound of their teammate’s voices. “Sorry, we were distracted!”

Yana impishly grinned as she walked closer to the two teams and cleared her throat. “Thank you for the match. See you soon.” Yana waved as Karasuno walked away. Once they were out of earshot Yana whispered to Hajime, “Where did Oikawa go?”

\--------

Sawamura led his team towards the school exit. “It’s frustrating but, no matter how incredible Hinata and Kageyama’s freak quick attack is, we lack some core basics. Frankly, when it comes to receiving and defense, we are still weak.

“Ohh~ As expected of the Captain. You really understand the situation.”

“HA?! What do you want?” Tanaka shoved his hands in his pockets and turned up his chin to look intimidating.

“Aww, don’t be like that. I just came to say hello” Oikawa’s smile never faltered. “Ah, yes. You, small orange one. That one touch and broad attack at the end were really amazing. I was only able to play near the end, but next time let’s go all out, ok?” He stopped leaning on the gate and stood up straight. His voice no longer playful, “The inter-high preliminaries are coming up. Will you really be able to survive them?” 

“We can do special training!” Hinata grabbed hold of Tsukishima as he glared at Oikawa.

“Receiving isn’t something you can improve overnight. You can try your best though. Make sure you keep up.” Oikawa grinned. It wasn’t the playful flirty kind, this one was more like a wide sneer, the kind that seemed like he wanted to eat everyone rather than say hello. “I want to crush this uselessly adorable Tobio-chan fair and square in an official game. Let’s see who the best setter really is.” Oikawa began his walk back to school not bothering to wait for a response. “There isn’t much time left till the tournament. Try your best~!”


	16. Not Gifted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bribery  
> Practice  
> Half a backstory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I say that I'll miss you, will you go away?  
> Happy reading.

“Dammit. You’re supposed to say, ‘I won’t lose in tosses either’ Shittykawa!” Hajime threw a volleyball at Oikawa’s back which caused Yana to look up and towards the pair.

She watched as the ball rolled in her direction. “Hajime! Don’t throw the balls around!” Yana sighed as she picked the ball up and placed it into the half filled cart. She didn’t really hear the first part of their conversation but as she approached to get the second ball, she heard the last few sentences.

“Geniuses irritate me.” Oikawa’s childish facial expression and tone didn’t match his words. It was always a really strange sight. “Our little Tobio-chan irritates me the most.”

“Guys who have girls going ‘Kyaa Kyaa’ over them irritate me more” Hajime retorted.

Oikawa gave Hajime a victorious grin. “Jealousy is unbecoming on you, Iwa-chan”

It wasn’t even a few seconds later that Hajime launched another ball at Oikawa’s back. He never failed to miss his target.

“Hajime! The balls!” Yana pouted as she crossed her arms over her chest. Practice was over and she just wanted to go home. No, Scratch that. She wanted to find out why Oikawa so badly wanted to Kageyama to be here, it was obvious something was going on, but neither Hajime nor Oikawa gave anything away. It was obvious that Kageyama was a genius setter, and Oikawa claimed to hate people like him, but as far as Yana was aware, Oikawa was equally as talented. Not to be biased or anything but Yana would much rather receive a toss from Oikawa over Kageyama. Kageyama -as far she could tell from the previous game- gave tosses that were based off what he wanted, what he thought was best. Be it a broad, cross or straight, a setter who can control the spiker’s swing direction didn’t really sit well with her.

**_-_ ** **\----THE DAY BEFORE GOLDEN WEEK-----**

Honestly, the day was pretty uneventful. Oikawa and Yana had been working on their project separately for some time now, so a study session was probably long overdue. Yana shook her head to get the thought away, that was for another time. Instead, she thought about how long it would take for Aiko to notice Rini's flirting. 

  
“Aiko! Yana!”

 _Speak of the devil, here she comes. Hopefully this time Rini’s advances would go better._ Yana was really rooting for the pair but didn’t want to interrupt. So, she stayed as a spectator and hoped for the best.

Rini had her strawberry blonde hair tied up in high twin pigtails making her seem younger and more innocent. Her sea-blue eyes glittered every time she got to talk with Aiko. “I never asked but how was the movie?”

This time it was Aiko’s turn to perk up as he gave his signature lopsided grin. “It was really good. My brother and I enjoyed it a lot!” He rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Thank you for that. It was really generous of you.”

Yana was certain that Rini’s smile could have brightened up a dark room, it was blinding. “I’m glad.” Rini decided that even though she didn’t get to watch the movie with him she was still happy he enjoyed it with his brother.

“Yana-chan~” Oikawa called her from a few paces back. “Ya~hoo!”

Yana was already dreading what Oikawa wanted to say. She wasn’t necessarily dreading it because he was Oikawa, but she was more conscious of the sly looks Rini gave her. Yana was positive that one day Rini would get involved and play matchmaker, Yana was not looking forward to that day. “Oikawa, anything you need?”

“Would you receive some serves for me? I need you to tell me if they are good or need more…Oomph.”

Yana furrowed her eyebrows confused at what he was saying. “We don’t have practice today though. Will we even be allowed inside the gym?” Yana really shouldn’t have been as stunned as she was, Oikawa was so obsessed with volleyball that his last girlfriend dumped him over it. She had been told that the exact words were something like, ‘If you love volleyball so much, why don’t you marry it’. Yana was almost certain that the words were overly exaggerated, but it didn’t make it any less amusing.

Oikawa smirked and flipped his hair back with one hand and kept the other on his hip. “Heh, I already asked. Coach Irihata said it was allowed as long as either you or Coach Mizoguchi are there with me. I figured Coach Mizoguchi wouldn’t agree which meant it was a better option to ask you.” Oikawa looked so proud of himself and his deductive capabilities. 

Yana couldn’t deny that he was right about that, but Oikawa was already insanely talented. It’s not like he had to try that hard. He wasn’t a genius like Kageyama, but he was plenty gifted himself. Oikawa could have honestly skipped a day or so of practice and everything would be fine. “What if I say no?” It was the day before golden week, the legendary week where all the students were free from school. Yana really didn’t want to spend the afternoon receiving Oikawa’s serves. Or any serves for that matter.

Oikawa held up a colorful bag of Konpeito candy and shook it gently. The little sugar rocks inside tempted her, “You can have this~” Oikawa knew he had Yana's attention. For the past few days he had repeatedly brought up the topic of candy, so he could have it prepared for this moment. “So~? What do you say?”

Yana was silent _. Hah, no way am I falling for that. How old does he think I am? I can just get my own bag of Konpeito._ “Psh.” _But it’s just receiving a few balls. It’s not like you have to play an entire game or anything._ A little voice in her head played devil’s advocate as she attempted not to listen. There was no way Yana was going to be bribed with something so silly as a bag of candy. 

Oikawa shook the bag once more.

“D-do I get the entire bag?” Yana mumbled shyly.

“You get everything that’s in the bag, but you have to promise to help me first.”

Yana held out her hand and bit back her pride. “Fine. I promise to help you practice after school.”

Oikawa put the bag in her hand and gave her a cute wink before he casually walked away with a wave. “See you later.”

Yana raised an eyebrow at the weight of the bag. She took a look inside to find out the reason. “You jerk!” The bag was already opened and there were only four pieces of candy left inside. “Get back here!” She had already promised to help him out after school so she couldn’t back out now, but at the very least he needed to repent for the almost completely empty bag of candy.

Oikawa cackled as he ran through the hallways with Yana hot on his tail. “No way~!”

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER SCHOOL IN THE GYM-----**

The sounds of smacking and bouncing echoed through the gym as the pair practiced. Yana squeaked as she returned the serve but rolled back a bit. It had already been two hours, but Oikawa’s serves were still as strong as ever.

“How was that?”

Yana lay down on the cold gym floor and put her hands in the air in a thumbs up gesture. “Good.” Yana’s forearms tingled, a sensation she was all too familiar with. Yana looked up at the gym ceiling. It was always the little differences that surprised her when she compared her old school with her new one. In this gym the lights were brighter and higher up. But more importantly, the white and teal walls that surrounded them didn’t feel so suffocating. Yana closed her eyes as she lay sprawled on her back. “I overheard a bit of what you and Hajime were talking about." She paused. "You know, Kageyama and the whole genius thing. I mean, you might not be a genius, but with how talented you are, you honestly might as well be.”

Oikawa lay down right beside her starfished on the floor. He was silent for once as he gathered his thoughts. “I see.” There was a pause that seemed to last forever, “Iwa-chan and I have been in the same school since as far back as I can remember. Even back then I loved volleyball.”

Yana nodded for him to continue. It wasn’t often, or rather – at all, that Oikawa spoke about his history. He seemed to know everything about the other members, but no one -except Hajime- knew much about him. 

He made a sour face, “In our third year of middle school we had a little setter appear, Tobio-chan.” Oikawa tightened his hands into fists as he went on a trip down memory lane. “He was so good at everything. It was almost frightening. The speed he learned was intimidating. I felt so frustrated.” He turned to lay his side to face Yana. “Yana-chan. Do you think I'm gifted in volleyball?”

Yana opened her eyes “Yes. You have proven multiple times that you are very good in what you do.” She gave him a side glance to gauge his reaction. 

Oikawa laughed slightly. “No, I'm not but I wish I was. Tobio-chan scared me because he chased after me faster than I could pick things up. Everything new that he learned and executed effortlessly took me days’ worth of practice to even be as half as good. I had to work twice as hard to keep up with something he could do easily. I needed to stay one step ahead. I didn't want to lose to him. I'm not talented in the slightest. One day I panicked, and I was benched mid-game. Tobio-chan was my replacement. He played flawlessly. It was terrifying."


	17. Golden Week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not flirting - how do you flirt?  
> Surprise training camp  
> Yana gets a call from the Nekoma boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here I am! What are your other two wishes?
> 
> Enjoy!

Yana pursed her lips. That's the reason Oikawa had to hone his skills through hours of relentless practice. That’s why he didn’t take a day off today and why he worked so incredibly hard. He believes -rightfully so- that hard work can beat natural aptitude. Yana couldn’t say she knew exactly how he felt. She wasn’t claiming to be a genius or anything of the sort, but at the same time Yana knew she didn’t have to work as hard as Oikawa did to reach her current skill level. She had just been lucky enough to have started young and had two friends who would play with her all the time. Yana reminisced the plethora of competitive and non-competitive matches she had played, mostly against stronger schools. She remembered that after every game she would pester the other team to teach her something new. Yana was blessed with a good environment to grow and learn. If Oikawa represented hard work and Kageyama represented natural talent, then Yana would represent experience and luck.

Yana thought for a moment considering the difference between both setters. “As incredible as Kageyama is, If I was a spiker, I’d much rather receive a toss from you.”

“Are you sure that isn’t just bias?” He scoffed.

She wasn’t sure what had happened in the past, but presently Yana didn’t even need to think about her answer, “I'm sure. I’d rather get tosses I like. It doesn’t matter to me if the toss isn’t textbook perfect or if other people don’t like it. Who cares, it’ll be me spiking that ball, not them. You give each member the kind of toss they are best at. I think that’s something to be very proud of.”

Oikawa was a little taken back. He wasn’t really sure what to say. He couldn’t really claim that it was just favoritism or her being ‘nice’. If Yana-chan believed he was trash she would straight up tell him. It was another trait that Iwa-chan shared with her. It was probably something that ran in the Iwaizumi family.

Yana smiled, her eyes filled with nothing but sincerity. “Attractiveness, skill, charisma and intelligence. As much as I hate to say it, you possess all of those. And if it helps you feel better..." Yana knew she would regret saying what she planned but powered through anyway, "...In my opinion, and in your fangirls’ opinions you are definitely better looking than Kageyama.” Yana’s smile turned into a coy smirk. “That part is definitely biased though.”

“Are you... flirting? With me?” Oikawa gasped dramatically as he tried to fight a developing smile but the corners of his mouth turned upwards with the promise of mischief.

Yana groaned and rolled her eyes. “Why would you ruin the moment like that?”

“It was a totally viable question!”

Yana raised an eyebrow unconvinced. “How? Just complimenting someone and telling the truth isn't flirting.”

“Well, if I were trying to flirt with someone, I would start exactly like how you did. I would start off by saying how cool she was. I could say pretty or cute, but in this example, cool is the better descriptor.” Oikawa paused for just a second to examine Yana's face before continuing. “Then I would say that her eyes were the color of deep sienna, and that they reminded me of caramel and dark chocolate. I would say that a genuine smile suits her best. Unfortunately, it’s literally illegal to be better looking than me, so I have to say something other than how pretty she is.” 

“That sounds grossly poetic. But I should have expected that from you.” Yana interjected quickly.

Oikawa tried to stifle a laugh which gave Yana a ticklish feeling in her stomach. “I would also say that she can be really frustrating and mysterious. And it totally doesn’t bother me how she has close to the same number of fangirls as I do, or maybe how she can be stubborn but is secretly easy to convince with the right bribe. She does a lot of contradictory things that don’t add up, so naturally -as a seeker of knowledge- I want to know more about her. What does she look like in casual clothes? What does she like to do on the weekends? How does she like her coffee? What kind of flustered expression does she make? Will I be able to fluster her?"

“That sounds like an awful way to flirt with someone.”

Oikawa shrugged noncommittally. “I think it’s working.”

“I doubt it highly.” Yana huffed 

There was a noticeable click from the main entrance doors. “Shittykawa, the coach said to go home ages ago, what are you still doing here?” Hajime crossed his arms over his chest, his bag slung over his shoulder. “Yana. Did he bribe you into coming here?”

Yana looked away guiltily. Oikawa did bribe her into promising to help him.

Hajime sighed. “You are both idiots. Let’s go home.” He glared at the pair, “Now.” he rubbed his forehead. “If you are that antsy to practice don’t forget we have a training camp this week.”

Yana froze. “What?” If Hajime was to be believed, her whole week of slacking would be reduced to just two days, Saturday and Sunday. _What kind of cruel joke is this?_

“You are the student coach in training, how do you not know?” Oikawa chirped; between the trio he was obviously the most excited.

“My free week…gone.” She whimpered, sounding heartbroken. Yana honestly should have known that the volleyball team would have a training camp, she had participated in many herself, so it was only logical that other teams had them too. She wasn’t really sure on where the location of the camp was but apparently it wasn’t too far out of the area which meant she only needed to pack lightly. She wanted to be prepared and ready to go for the morning.

**_-_ ** **\----THAT AFTERNOON-----**

“…that’s basically what happened at the match. I’ve never seen anyone so nervous before.” Yana sighed as she ate a spoonful of her pudding. As soon as she got home, she received a video call from Kuroo and Kenma. Well, rather a call from the Nekoma Volleyball team. Apparently, they found out that Kenma was going to call her and wanted in on it.

Yana was friends with all members of the team. Despite going to an entirely different school, she had gone out to celebrate many events with them, be it victory or birthdays or even just for fun.

“You have Saturday and Sunday off, right?”

Yana nodded. “Yep, we get to go home on Friday afternoon.”

The boys looked at each other “How close is your school to Karasuno?”

“I don’t think it’s that far considering that we were able to have a practice match with them. Why do you ask?”

“Come cheer us on!” Inouka called out as he popped up in front of the camera. His lanky frame made him very noticeable, though his bouncy personality made him hard to ignore already. He smiled constantly with those latte colored doe eyes of his. “On Saturday we have a practice match with them!”

“Wait, what?!” Yana’s eyes widened and an elated grin broke out. It had been ages since she had seen the team. At least in person that is. “Where will it be held?!” She could barely restrain her excitement as she took out a pen and paper to write the address and location.

“Sougou Sports Park, Ball Game Grounds. It’ll start at ten before eight in the morning. Don’t be late ok? We already told Coach Nekomata that you would be coming.” Yaku responded. He was the calmest of the bunch. Outwardly that was.

Yana wrote the address and time down and placed it in her bag. Waking up that early would be a pain, but this was one of the very few times she would be completely onboard with waking up at the ungodly hours on a Saturday. Honestly, if they said the game was at four in the morning she still probably would have agreed. “Hold up. You already told Coach Nekomata that I’d be coming? What if I said no?”

“There was no chance you would say no.” Kenma called out from somewhere behind the camera.

Yana had to admit, Kenma wasn’t wrong. She looked at the clock hanging above her door. “Oh crap, I need to go to bed. I need to be up by what could only be described as 'the ass crack of dawn'. I’ll see you Saturday, yeah?”

“Definitely!” They all called out in unison.

Yana was about to hang up before she heard Yamamoto call out her name. “Wait! Yana, you’ve met the Karasuno team before, right?”

“Yeah.”

Yamamoto gulped as he began his question. “Do they have a female manager? Ahh! If they do, I'll never forgive them. I’ll only forgive them if she is some kind of gorilla chick.” He mussed with his blonde mohawk. "But! If their manager is a beauty...”He never finished his sentence. 

Yana contemplated if she was going to tell him that Karasuno’s manager was drop dead gorgeous or keep it a secret. He was an overly excitable person which meant chaos would ensue if she told him. But then again, he would cause chaos anyway if she didn’t tell him. After a mere few seconds Yana had decided to tell him, at the very least his anticipation would be quelled. “Their manager is a girl and is the most beautiful manager I've ever seen.”

Yamamoto gasped, ran to the open window and shouted into the distance. “You better be prepared Karasuno! We are going to demolish you!”

“Shut up, Yamamoto!” Kuroo yelled equally as loud.

The phone camera was suddenly moved out of Kuroo’s hand and turned to show Yaku on the screen. “They’ll be at it again as usual for a while. You should probably get some rest. It’s pretty late.” He waved, “We’ll be seeing you soon. Good night.”

Yana heard a chorus of good nights and byes as she waved then hung up. “Nighty.”


	18. Costume Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day one  
> Analysis practice  
> Yana gets new clothes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If i could meet my brain, the first thing I would probably say is "It was truly and sincerely horrible working with you"
> 
> Happy reading!

“O-one more” Watari wheezed. He had been running himself ragged trying to receive Hajime’s spikes.

Yana continued to toss balls up for Hajime to spike to Watari’s side of the court, he wanted to try get better control and power over the ball while he was in the air. It didn’t matter how many perfect tosses he received if he couldn’t even hit them to the best of his ability.

Yana looked around till her eyes landed on Oikawa. He had been trying to increase his jump serve’s accuracy without having to sacrifice any speed and technique. He had been knocking down individual water bottles on the other side of the court for the past hour without rest. Oikawa wanted to make the most out of the training camp so that was what he planned to do.

“Iwaizumi”

“Yes?” Both the Iwaizumis' turned to face the Head Coach. They weren’t sure which of the pair he was referring to so Yana and Hajime had both grown accustomed to answering together.

“Ah, Yana.” Coach Irihata specified. “Come here for a moment.” He gestured to the space beside him on the bench.

Yana tossed one more ball up for Hajime before she sat beside Coach Irihata. “Watari has improved dramatically, It’s really quite something. I’m sure you played a huge role in his progress.”

“It’s not just me putting in the work, Watari has been practicing diligently. I can give as much advice as I can but if he refuses to practice and follow through with training, he wouldn’t have improved as much as he has.” Yana watched as Watari applied everything he had learned into his receives. She remembered the first time she saw him play and compared it to the him now. It would be hard to believe they were the same person with how much he had changed. His form looked much sturdier and he had confidence in his receives. Yana looked back to when he first asked her to teach him.

_‘I want to be able to tell my teammates with confidence that I have their backs! I want to help bring the team to nationals.’_

A realization dawned on her. _I don’t think I'm needed here as a student coach anymore._ When Yana first agreed to join, she planned to leave as soon as Watari could easily stand on his own two feet. There were no new tricks she could teach him, at this point, it was up to Watari himself to find out what worked best for him. He had to find his own play style. Yana’s usefulness was over. “I think he’ll be fine on his own now.” She pursed her lips, after the training camp ended she would probably have to quit. _I planned on leaving in the first place, so it should be easy. I managed to quit my old team without any regrets, and I knew those members since early middle school. So why do I feel reluctant to leave this team?_

Coach Irihata abruptly handed her a clipboard and a pen pushing her out of her own thoughts. “What’s this for?” There was a sheet of paper on the board with the names of each member arranged in a table.

“Write down the strengths of three members.”

“Alright.” Yana watched her teammates for a few minutes before she began to write.

The first was Kunimi, he was on energy saving mode all the time -which did make her wonder why he chose to play such a physically demanding sport- but dismissing that thought, Yana was convinced that Kunimi could be utilized in late game play when the rest of the team was tired.

Next, she chose Hanamaki. He was always composed and observant. Yana had noticed that Hanamaki’s game sense was probably one of the best amongst the other members. Not to mention his feints are pretty nasty. Hanamaki had awareness that was valuable at all times during a match.

For Yana’s final pick she went with Kindaichi. He used his height to spike from up high to avoid the Blockers. Kindaichi’s spike had always sent the ball straight down on the opponent’s side of the field. She had noticed him practicing a broad quick to add to his repertoire.

Yana handed the board and paper to the Coach. He raised an eyebrow as he read her analysis. “I'm surprised you didn’t choose Oikawa and Iwaizumi as two of your players.”

“Yeah, but that’d be boring. I want to give the other members a time to shine. Even if it is only on paper.” Yana shrugged, her eyes flitting between each member of the team as they practiced with a determined look on their faces. “Just because they aren’t part of the team’s ‘wonder duo’ doesn’t mean they don’t deserve credit too.”

The coach laughed as soon as he heard Yana refer to the Oikawa-Iwaizumi pair as the ‘wonder duo’. Though, she wasn’t wrong. Years of friendship and practice developed a strong mutual trust between the pair. More often than not, if Oikawa felt panicked or if he was convinced there was no other option, the ball would find itself set to Iwaizumi. “Well put.”

A silence fell over them. Yana had come to terms that she would probably be asked to quit now that Watari had learned everything that Yana could provide. But she didn’t really want to. She had come to enjoy her time with the team, despite her constant complaining.

Yana fidgeted with the pen still in her hand. Perhaps if she asked then the coach then he would allow her to stay in the club. “Um, Coach. I was wondering. Would it maybe it’d be ok if I stayed in this club as a student coach. I- I know I’m already asking too much.” She looked down at her feet as she stopped twirling the pen. “I justlikeitherewitheveryone” Yana’s last few words compressed together. It was a wonder the Coach understood at all.

Coach Irihata hummed thoughtfully. During these past few weeks Yana had changed rather dramatically. He remembered when she first joined and how reluctant she was to stay. Yana was able to break a few bad habits while she played. The coach had to admit that it was probably the team that had loosened her up a bit. Yana was able to rely on her teammates a little bit more and not take the burden of saving the ball alone. Though, the Coach was most thankful that she had stopped responding to him like he was a drill Sergeant. If anything, that always made him feel a little put off by how stiff her responses were. “You aren’t asking too much at all. It would be reassuring to have another set of eyes to watch the court. A different perspective would be refreshing.”

Yana brightened up, “So, I can stay?”

“Yes.” The Coach paused for a moment. “Though, you’ll need to change that attire of yours.”

Yana looked down at her Volleyball Club tracksuit confused. She was wearing it correctly, and it was the exact same one issued to her when she first joined. Following true to years of habit, she definitely ironed and hung it up after each wash. “What’s wrong with it?”

Head Coach Irihata beckoned to Coach Mizoguchi. “Bring it over.”

It wasn’t long till a small brown box the size of a cookie tin was brought over and unceremoniously handed to Yana. It was a regular looking cardboard box. No patterns decorated any of the sides, no string or tape to even hold it together. It wasn’t very heavy and when she gently shook it from side to side it didn’t make a noise. After giving up on trying to guess what the item was, she opened it. Her eyes widened as she pulled out the contents, her expression akin to a child on their birthday.

“Try it on.”

Yana took off her usual track jacket then replaced it with the new one. While the colors were the same, the design was different. There was less white in this design and it seemed to be more of a two-toned jacket rather than the previous white with minor teal accents. The sleeves of her jacket were a solid block of teal which spread up the arms to the shoulders to the collar. There were two diagonal lines coming down from the base of the collar to a little lower than her underarms which formed a triangle tip shape. Everything else below those lines were the same type of white as her old jacket. To complete the look, on the back of her new jacket the words ‘Aoba Johsai VBC’ were printed in bold white letters. Now Yana really felt the part of ‘Student Coach’. Her excitement was palpable. Before she could say anything, the Coach spoke first.

“It wasn’t me who thought of the idea, it was Watari. He said that if you planned on staying for the rest of the year, you deserved to look the part. He didn’t want people to confuse you as a member of the Girls’ Volleyball Club when you were part of the Boys' Volleyball Club. Although, I'm pretty sure he wanted to do something as a thanks for helping him.” Coach Irihata chuckled heartily. It was the first time he had seen Yana have such a bewildered expression on their face.

Yana was speechless. She sniffled. “That’s so soft”, another sniffle “He’s so sweet.”

“Whaaa~ Yana-chan, you actually look like a student coach and not a manager.” Oikawa grinned from behind her, his hands on his hips. He took one look before he quickly ran beside her “Woah, are you ok? What’s wrong?” He fretted over her nervously. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the team noticed her tears. They would most definitely assume that he was the culprit. “Are you hungry? Did I say something? Allergies? Did someone else say something?”

“Oi, Oi. Shittykawa what did you do?” Hajime crossed his arms over his chest, a scowl focused on Oikawa.

“Wow, Oikawa made poor Yana cry. I thought he didn’t make girls cry” Yahaba added, poking fun at their ‘illustrious’ captain.

“N-no, no! He didn’t do anything.” Yana dried her eyes with the sleeves of her new jacket. “I’m just really happy. No one outside my family and two childhood friends has ever done something like this for me.” She smiled once she had finished drying her tears. “Hey Watari! Thank you for this!”

Watari was confused for a moment before he realized what she was trying to tell him, he flushed enough that a tint of pink showed on his tan skin. “No problem!” He gave her a thumbs up and an equally bright smile. “Please continue doing your best!”


	19. Blocking 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2  
> Practice Drills   
> Blocking Practice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A positive attitude my not solve all your problems , but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. 
> 
> Enjoy!

If the last day of the camp was the most enjoyable then the hardest day of camp was the second day. Yana didn’t really believe the rumors till the coaches had woken them all up at four in the morning to do some group running. It wouldn’t have been too bad if it was just the team, but Yana had to endure the run with them. It was only the start of the second day, and she hated it. The silver lining on the rain cloud of suffering was that there was supposedly breakfast waiting for them. That was enough to lift Yana’s spirits, until she heard it was a continental breakfast. She only hoped a kind soul had added bacon to the options. _Scrambled eggs would be pretty nice too, but let’s not get too greedy._

**_-_** **\----AT BREAKFAST-----**

Per instruction the students had freshened up before breakfast and changed right into their tracksuits. Yana being the only girl got a room and shower to herself, which she had to admit, was way better than the communal showers and room the boys shared.

The dining area was themed like a winter lodge. The large windows framed the view of the trees and the deep mahogany wooden panels on the walls made for a nice contrast to the light coming in from the windows. In the center of the room was a single large table that took up most of the area. It reminded her of a picnic table. But, inside instead of outside. Upon closer inspection she found that the table was varnished and had curly silver designs etched into the legs.

Yana took a seat beside Hajime. “Juice, water, coffee or tea?”

Hajime nodded, and once his mouth was empty, he spoke. “Orange juice please.” No sooner after he had finished speaking, he shoveled another spoonful of food in his mouth.

“Hi, Hi Iwa-chan!” Oikawa placed his food on the empty space beside him and sat. Despite the run, Oikawa was still as energetic as ever.

Hajime sighed. Oikawa was usually not a morning person but since this was a training camp for volleyball, he would probably have way too much enthusiasm than strictly necessary. The only thing that kept Hajime going was the knowledge that by the end of the camp Oikawa would be out like a light for the next few days. No more texts at two in the morning for a while.

“Oikawa. That was my seat.” Yana deadpanned. Before Oikawa could say anything, she shook her head. “You don’t have to move. You can sit there.” She smirked as she handed Hajime his drink and placed her own down by her plate. “Because I am benevolent and kind.”

Hajime almost spat out his drink.

“I totally am!” She protested.

“Iwa-chan doesn’t seem to agree.”

Yana pouted and held out her hand. “Since I’m not benevolent and kind then I would like that glass of orange juice back.”

Hajime scoffed. “No take backs. Now eat, both of you.”

It wasn’t long after the trio had started eating that Oikawa made a fuss. “Kyaa! I'm being sandwiched by two Iwaizumis’” He squealed in his best fangirl voice. Yana almost choked; Hajime coughed. The rest of the team looked over at Oikawa. They wanted to play along too.

Yahaba went first “O-M-G! You are so lucky!”

“Talk about a spicy sandwich.” Matsukawa cooed playfully.

Sawauchi pouted “I'm so jealous.”

“Me too, me too!” Shido giggled in an overly girly voice.

“They could both spike me in the face with a volleyball and I’d still thank them.” Hanamaki sighed dreamily.

“I can make that happen if you want” Hajime threatened, “We have practice after breakfast.”

**_-_ ** **\----IN THE GYM-----**

The coach instructed the students to warm up more than usual since it was going to be a busy day. Yana hoped it wasn’t anything too draining, not after that grueling four in the morning run. She took off her jacket and draped it over a free spot on the bench with the rest of the team’s jackets before she began.

_FWEEEET!_

After a few minutes the Coach blew his whistle to call the students over to him. “Since today is the second day, we will work on some basic practice drills.” He pulled out his clipboard and showed the timetable to the students. “We will start with digs and sets then move on to spikes and blocks. We will have lunch break before working on our serves,and after that we will play three v threes but none of you will be playing your usual roles. Next will be dinner, free time then lights out, Sound good?”

“Yes, Coach!”

Yana was surprised she was included in the physical practice this time to be totally frank. Yesterday she had been working with the Coach to try to make a more in-depth analysis of both Seijoh and the other teams. They had bounced numerous strategies in preparation for the upcoming interhigh tournament. If she was being honest, she felt more nervous as a student coach than she did back when she used to play. Just because she would be out of the court didn’t ease the pressure she felt for the team, if anything it made her more nervous.

The team was spilt into groups of three for practice, Yana found herself teamed up with Matsukawa and Kunimi. “Hi there.” She waved to the pair and took the free space next to them, completing the circle. They began to pass the ball around, alternating between overhead and dig passes. It was a drill all of them had to do when they were first learning, so everyone was familiar with the movements.

At first Matsukawa intimidated her because of his height and his skill in blocking. That was until she realized that the messy haired player was actually very easygoing and good-natured. Albeit he enjoyed poking fun at his friends, but it was all in good spirit. He knew when to stop.

“Hi” Kunimi responded with his signature deadpan voice. When she had seen him in the volleyball team, she realized that he was the little first year that helped her to the office when she was lost on the first day. At first, she thought that he had an indifferent expression because it was early in the morning. That was until she realized that it was just his natural resting face. Some people get a resting bitch face but Kunimi got a resting ‘nope’ face.

_FWEEEET!_

The Coach one again blew the whistle to signal to the students to practice spikes and blocks.

Yana, Kunimi and Matsukawa took their position on the right side of the court. They had decided to go round-robin style. Yana would throw up the ball for Kunimi to spike which Matsukawa would attempt to block, after five attempts they would rotate clockwise so Yana would be spiking, Matsukawa would be tossing and Kunimi would be blocking. They would rotate clockwise again after every five attempts so each player would be able to do all the practice drills.

It was soon discovered that unfortunately, Yana’s blocking skills were pretty undesirable. Borderline awful. Yana’s tosses and digs were well practiced movements, her spikes weren’t too shabby but her blocks, they needed more work.

“How are you so bad at blocking when you have played volleyball practically all your life?” Matsukawa sounded personally offended, as a middle blocker himself, he couldn’t let this slide. “Weren’t you in a volleyball club before?”

“I never was allowed to practice it” She mumbled with a pout. “The last time I practiced blocks was like two, maybe three years ago?”

Matsukawa was bewildered, she was in a competitive team and they didn’t let her practice blocks. He wasn’t sure what school she went to, but whatever school it was probably didn’t make it very far considering how they neglected to round out their player's abilities. It was important to know how to do everything, at least at an amateur level. “Yana, you know what’ll happen if we lose the three v three, don’t you?”

“Uh, no?”

Matsukawa shuddered. “Diving drills once around the court.”

“That’s not too bad,” Yana chirped. Only once around the court would be easy. She was used to doing considerably more as part of the daily practice in her previous school.

“Yana. You are a Libero. You are good at them. Out of the whole team I'm the worst at diving drills.”

Just then the coach walked over, once more holding his clipboard. “So, for the three v threes, Kunimi you will play Setter, Matsukawa you can either be a Spiker or a Defense Specialist and Yana you will be a Middle Blocker. The other teams won’t know who has what role, like in normal games you may make use of your other skills, but your primary role is as listed. “Good luck.”

As soon as the Coach was far enough away Matsukawa fell to his knees and whimpered heartbroken. “We’re doomed. Diving drills for days.”

“Sorry.” Yana felt a little bad for causing him so much distress.

“No, no. It’s ok.” He got back up with new determination. Matukawa grabbed Yana’s shoulders. “Crash course on blocking. You are going to be the greatest blocker ever.”

“Being optimistic is cute,” Kunimi snorted. “But, back to reality. Yana, what is the best way to dive? Is there a form or trick to do it well?”

“Kunimi! Don’t just give up!”


	20. Stars and Aliens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Results of the match   
> Stargazing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've only been wrong once, that's when I thought I was wrong
> 
> Happy reading!

“There is no hope.” Yana groaned as another spike easily went through her attempt at a block. “My blocks are like a sieve. I suppose this is what I get for not practicing it for two years. I should have asked Kuroo to help me practice.”

“Kuroo?” Kunimi asked, only the minimal amount interested. He figured the longer Yana and Matsukawa talked, the longer time he had to rest. His desire to rest was considerably higher than his curiosity.

“Ah, my childhood friend! He plays Middle Blocker. We practiced a lot with our other childhood friend, Kenma.” 

“You mean to tell me. You have two childhood friends. Who not only play volleyball but actively practice with you, and you never asked them to teach you how to block properly?” Matsukawa rubbed his temples. He was a pretty laid-back guy and usually this wouldn’t bother him so much, until he remembered a similar scenario with Iwaizumi and Oikawa. Oikawa -as per usual- had done something stupid that Iwaizumi needed to clean up _. Is this what it feels like to be Iwaizumi?_ Matsukawa called out to Iwaizumi on the other side of the gym. “Iwaizumi! I appreciate you!”

Matsukawa looked back to his teammates only to find Kunimi and Yana a few paces away talking. “Just touch it once and we will deal with the rest. If you can at least do that, Matsukawa can work hard for us.”

Yana nodded looking more determined than she did a few minutes ago. She could at least get a touch on it. She apologized to Matsukawa internally, between the trio he would definitely have the hardest time. Yana put a hand on his shoulder, she felt a little awkward because of their height difference and it probably looked that way too, but she continued undeterred. “It’s all on you.” She gave him a thumbs up. “You’ll do great.

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER THE MATCH-----**

Unsurprisingly they were absolutely destroyed by their opposing team. While it was unfortunate, everyone saw it coming. The trio had tried their best but couldn’t quite get that many points in. Yana had at least managed to block some balls and tap a few others. She was probably on an amateur‘s level now compared to the disaster she was before. “Sorry about the diving drills.” Yana looked down ashamed she had let down her team. Sure, she wasn’t playing her usual role but that shouldn’t have been any excuse for how badly she had done.

Kunimi gave her a hard pat on the back but didn’t really say anything.

“It’s fine. The drills weren’t that bad.” Matsukawa pat Yana on the head. “Damn, you are shorter than I thought.” he grinned.

Yana looked up at him appalled. “Gasp! How dare you say such blasphemous things.”

“I'm a heathen I can say whatever I want.” He shrugged.

As soon as the coach went over the events of the day, he dismissed all the students for dinner.

\-------

Just as it was foretold, only the second day was especially difficult. That’s not to say the other days weren’t as hard, it was just that by the third day they were all used to the morning workout.

During the third day, Yana had been learning how to properly analyze a match as well as all the players on the field. On the fourth day she had to come up with multiple different strategies she could utilize during a game. If she was going to be a student coach, then she needed to learn what the responsibilities of the title ‘Coach’ were.

**_-_ ** **\----LAST NIGHT OF THE TRAINING CAMP-----**

After dinner, Yana had decided to take some time for herself. She sat in the middle of a nearby park and pulled her large shawl closer. Apart from the occasional chilly breeze the night was a bearable temperature. The warm rays of the sun had long since died out and revealed the darkness of the star-filled sky. Yana sat on one of the park’s swings. Due to living in the city, she didn’t often get to see the beautiful fairy lights in the sky. She always wondered how bright the stars would shine if she wasn’t in the city. She found her thoughts drifting aimlessly. _I wonder if aliens do live up there. Wait, what? No._

Yana had become so engrossed in the blanket of stars that she didn’t notice the sound of footsteps behind her. “They look like fireflies, don’t they?”

Oikawa’s presence was unexpected but not unwelcome. “I've never seen a firefly.”

Oikawa sat beside her on the second swing. He too found himself gazing into the starry sky. It was a cloudless night with the crescent moon providing the minimum amount of brightness. It was one of the better nights to stargaze. “Fireflies look like tiny glimmers of light that slowly dance around in the air. They look like stars that seem so close you can touch them.”

Yana closed her eyes trying to imagine little flecks of light floating around in a small swarm, not too different from the sparks of a frozen firework. “You’ll have to show me one day.”

Oikawa shivered slightly from the cool air “Yeah.” He had underestimated the cold and neglected to bring a jacket, he instead wrapped his arms around himself and rubbed his biceps trying to get at least some warmth from the friction.

“Do…do you want to share? We’ll probably need to move a bench or something though” Yana showed Oikawa her wool shawl. In the low lighting her shawl looked more like a dark grey than a velvet blue, but appearance didn’t matter when it held the promise of warmth.

Oikawa nodded without much hesitance as the pair migrated to an empty bench. No sooner than they sat, Oikawa felt half of the already warm shawl drape over his back and shoulders. A gentle smell of vanilla tickled his nose. Despite it being wool, the fabric wasn’t itchy or rough to the touch, rather it was soft and cozy. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

They sat in a comfortable silence just basking in each other’s presence and enjoying the stars. For some reason Oikawa could have sworn that the stars glittered more tonight than they ever had before. “I can’t believe it’s already been four days; tomorrow is the end of the camp. The fifth day is just packing then taking the bus back home.”

"Yep" Yana sighed "After this we'll have to go back to working on our project."

Oikawa gasped and looked at her like she had personally offended him. "Why did you have to remind me like that?"

Yana raised her eyebrow. “You and I both know that we need to have a long overdue meeting to compare our research."

Oikawa had nothing to say back. He did have a pile or two of research that he needed to sift through with Yana's help. "Fine." He grumbled begrudgingly. "This Saturday? I can pick you up and we can walk to one of the nearby cafés for lunch or something?

"I’ll be busy this Saturday.”

“Sunday?”

Yana was about to agree before she caught herself. “Hold on, we definitely won’t be able to get work done while we eat lunch.”

Oikawa pouted. “I was asking you on a date.”

“And I was asking for a study meeting.”

Oikawa stood up abruptly “Sooooo~ 'Study date' on Sunday.” He gave her the ‘ok’ sign before walking away proudly. “No matter what you say tomorrow, I won’t change my mind any time soon. Nighty nighty Yana-chan!”

Yana was left sitting on the bench, she pulled the other half of the shawl back to her body and snuggled into the leftover warmth Oikawa left behind. Yana had originally planned to go back inside but she decided that just a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt.

\-----

_A hand grabbed Yana’s wrist tightly, “Zumi! I told you not to go outside! What do you think you are doing? I said to watch me!”_

\------

“Yana!”

“H-W-what?” She was jolted awake by Hajime. She wasn’t even aware she had fallen asleep. Yana looked around a little disoriented. “How long was I out?”

“When Shittykawa said he saw you out here, I thought you would have already gone back inside. Imagine my surprise when I saw a certain someone asleep on a bench.” he rubbed his knuckles on her head for a noogie. “You know it’s dangerous to fall asleep here.”

Yana finally escaped from Hajime’s hold. “Yes.”

“Next time, go to sleep inside when you are tired. You have a bed for a reason, Yana.” He sighed and held his hand out to her. “Come on, let’s both go inside.”

Yana took his hand and used it to help her up. “Thanks for waking me up.” She knew that Hajime had no idea the weight her words held and what he had saved her from, but she wanted to at least say thank you. _I don’t need memories coming back as nightmares._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should have been writing yesterday but then like got distracted by drawing Yana -i was slacking, lol. (there will be a link in the next chapter) but anyway, that's why unless i write two chapters today, i wont be able to post tmrw. there will be a post the day after tmrw though.
> 
> sorry bout that.


	21. Tokyo Boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training camp is over  
> Kenma needs to eat  
> Suspicious people  
> The teams meet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh, I did end up writing two chapters, sooooo yeah. Surprise update I guess?  
> And I decided that the picture of her would be better placed when a certain event happens in the next few chapters.  
> \------  
> How do astronomers plan a party?  
> They Planet!
> 
> Enjoy!

Yana felt dead on her feet and she was very much looking forward to sleeping on the bus ride home. “Is everyone packed and ready to go?” Yana called to the rest of the team. She saw a couple of nods and heard a chorus of yesses. “Great. If you have forgotten anything, we aren’t coming back for it.” She hid a developing yawn and flagged the boys over. They needed to leave early in the morning if they wanted to make it back to the school by the afternoon. “Come put your bags in the compartment and get in the bus.” Thankfully the process went smoothly, though with only fourteen people -herself and both coaches included- it should have been a smooth transition.

Yana was the last one in; she took the empty window seat beside Yahaba. She could have sworn that it wasn’t even ten minutes before she passed out asleep. The only sleep she managed to get last night was when she was outside on the bench, so the nap was welcomed with open arms.

Yana was the type to sleep soundly and pretty unbothered by her surroundings. Though, that didn’t apply to last night when she spotted a centipede crawling on the wall. See, Yana wasn’t too scared of spiders, but it was the centipedes that really got to her. They just had so many legs.

It wasn’t a surprise when she screamed bloody murder which had the coaches and the team running to her aid. While it was flattering that they all came to see if she was alright, she didn’t appreciate when Hajime brought the centipede closer to her while holding it with his bare hands. He was trying to show her how ‘harmless’ and ‘not scary’ the creature was. Though if she was being honest, Yana didn’t remember much of that conversation because she was too busy being terrified of the bug.

\-----------

“Kenma! You have to eat.” Kuroo held out his hand so Kenma would place his phone in it.

Kenma looked up at Kuroo, “Do I have to? I'm not hungry.”

Kuroo raised an eyebrow, “I'm sure Yana doesn’t want to see her childhood friend half dead from not eating.”

“Kuroo, I won’t die from skipping one meal.”

“But if I tell Yana you skipped a meal -and you and I both know that she will ask about it- then she would give us both the disappointed face.” Kuroo sighed, usually ‘disappointed faces’ didn’t bother him, and it especially didn’t bother Kenma, but Yana’s disappointed face made them feel like they had kicked a puppy on accident and didn’t bother to say sorry.

Kenma knew Kuroo was right. Neither of them enjoyed seeing that. “Fine. Fine, I get it.” He grumbled as he placed his phone in Kuroo’s hand and took the plate of food from him. “I’ll eat like half of this.”

“You mean all of it.” Kuroo deadpanned. There was a brief moment of silence as Kenma stared down his food.

“What about three-quarters of it?”

“Kenma.”

Kenma sighed as he began to eat. He really didn’t feel like it, but he did need to eat at one point.

A little while after, Kuroo put his empty plate away. “How do you feel about tomorrow?”

“What about tomorrow?”

“You know, the practice match, seeing Yana again. That stuff” Kuroo leaned back on the dining room chair causing his back to pop. “We haven’t seen her in months.”

“We saw her a few days ago.” Kenma shrugged. Truthfully, he was rather excited to see her again. The pair had missed her and her antics. It was just so different when Yana was around. Recently, Kenma had found himself counting down the days till her and Kuroo’s graduation. After they graduate Yana would be coming back to Tokyo and the three of them would be completed again. You can’t exactly go on a quest when you are missing a party member.

“In person. You know what I meant.” Kuroo poked Kenma’s cheek gently with his pointer finger. “You’re excited too, right?” He knew that Kenma missed Yana a lot. Almost, Almost more than Kuroo himself. Though he quickly dismissed that thought. There was no way Kenma missed her more than he did. Maybe it was the same amount, but it definitely wasn’t more.

Instead of replying Kenma simply nodded. _Tomorrow needs to come faster._

\------

“What sort of team is Nekoma?”

Coach Ukai thought for a moment before he turned to face Karasuno’s Faculty Advisor. “I’m not too sure about their current team but I know that the last time I saw them, they had great receives. There wasn’t just one outstanding player in their team. At least not in terms of offensive abilities, but they had no gaps in their defense.”

“Oh, that’s our complete opposite.”

“Yeah. They are called ‘The Cats’ for a reason, and just like real cats they have ‘flexibility’. I wonder how we ‘Crows’ will fare against them.”

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY-----**

It was eight thirty in the morning when Yana snuck into the gym. _Twenty minutes till both teams would arrive._ That morning Yana had decided to wear as much obnoxiously bright red and black as possible. Even her backpack was black. Yana was wearing plain black leggings, bright red converses -she bought them specially for this day- and the red ‘Oya Oya Oya’ hoodie she got from Kuroo. She wore a black half mask with the design of a white cat smile to obscure her face.

Yana pulled up her hood as she got closer to the main entrance. Her plan was simple. Make it up to the second floor unnoticed, hang up the things in her bag then go back down again. Easy peasy. Going through the hallways was easy enough but she still needed to be careful. Once she made it to the second floor it would be smooth sailing.

“I thought you’d do something like this.”

Yana squeaked and turned around slowly. She was greeted by none other than Coach Nekomata. “C-coach, you’re looking well for your age…what are you doing here so early?” Yana tried to save the conversation acting as casual as she could.

“If I didn’t look well since you last saw me -which was a few months ago- then that would be a problem." Despite being wrinkled, he still had a head of light, blondish-grey hair and a youthful demeanor. The man was sixty-eight, but his body certainly didn’t act like it. “I was planning on going for a quick walk about the area just in case someone were to sneak in. So, what were you planning to do up here?” As per usual his feline-like smile never faltered. He always looked like he knew something you didn’t.

Yana sighed and conceded. She knelt down to unzip her bag and showed the contents to the Coach. “I wanted to put this up.” She looked up at him.

Coach Nekomata rubbed his chin thinking for a moment. “You can do that. Just make sure to tidy it back up once you’ve finished.” He began to walk down the stairs. “Hurry to the entrance plaza. The team is eager to see you again.”

“Yes, Coach!” Yana grinned as she started to hang up the item. “Oh, this’ll be great.”

\--------

“Psst, did Yana say what time she would be coming?” Yaku whispered to Kuroo as they all stood up in a line waiting for Karasuno to arrive.

“No, but I can text her real quick.”

“I already did, see?” Kenma showed his phone screen to Kuroo and Yaku.

**Kenma:** What time are you coming?

 **Yana:** Don’t worry, I’ll be on time <3

 **Yana:** See you there!

Yaku shook his head. “How vague.”

“Sounds just like her” Kuroo scoffed. The Nekoma team quickly stood back in a line as soon as they saw Karasuno run in closer.

“Line up!” Sawamura called out to his teammates. Karasuno straightened themselves opposite Nekoma. “Let’s have a good game!” Both teams bowed to each other before separating once more.

Hinata ran up to Kenma as he was about to walk in. “Kenma, I didn’t know you were from Nekoma! You didn’t tell me.”

“Oh, yeah. You didn’t ask so I didn’t say anything” Kenma replied in a rather unenthusiastic manner.

Yamamoto appeared behind Kenma with an intimidating look on his face which was only amplified by his blonde mohawk. “You there, what’d you want with our setter, huh?” He stared down the little orange haired boy.

“S-sorry”

“Oi. Right back at you. What do ya want with our first year, huh?” Tanaka walked closer to Yamamoto till they were only a few centimeters apart.

The scowl never left Yamamoto’s face. “The hell was that?”

“You wanna go, city boy?

\---------

Yana watched from afar as the two teams interacted. She was that surprised neither of the teams introduced themselves but instead referred to each other as ‘Crows’ and ‘Cats.’ Maybe that was a little too exaggerated, but it was close enough. Karasuno, Nekoma, same difference.


	22. Cats and Crows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Childhood friends reunion  
> Introductions  
> Game start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The severity of an itch is proportional to one's ability to reach it. 
> 
> Happy reading!

Yana kept her hoodie and mask on as she approached Kuroo and Kenma. It might have been very suspicious, but she couldn’t exactly let Karasuno know she was there. They knew her from Aoba Johsai so it would be odd if she was with Nekoma too. What if they thought she was a spy? “Kuroo! Kenma!” She squealed as she ran over to them.

Kuroo who was standing a little in front of Kenma held out his arms for a hug. When they were kids, whenever any out of the three would be gone for long periods of time they would always hug it out when they reunited. Even now that they were teenagers, they wouldn’t be ashamed to admit that they still continued with the hugs. “Yana!”

Just as Yana was about to run into Kuroo’s arms for a hug she abruptly sidestepped out of the way and ran behind him to hug Kenma first instead. “Kenma! Ah, I missed you!” Yana tightened her hug unbothered by Kenma’s unenthusiastic response. He wasn’t much of a hugger, but he would make an exception for her.

“Y-Yana. What about me?” Kuroo still held his hands open for his hug. He wasn’t expecting her to slip past him.

Yana laughed then turned back around to hug Kuroo. “I missed you too, Kuroo.” Once they had finished hugging it out, she wriggled out of his grasp and waved to the rest of the team who had already crowded around the trio. They assumed she was grinning, but from her face mask they weren’t too sure.

“I know you are here to support us, but what are you wearing?” Yaku cringed from the sight of Yana wearing their school colors in the most obnoxious way possible.

“What? Don’t like it?” She smirked, once again unseen. “I thought I really looked the part to cheer you on.”

“Then why do you look like a serial killer?” Inuoka blurted out, still as blunt as ever. “When you have your hood up it’s kinda scary.”

“Why do you even own a hoodie that big anyway?” Kai scrutinized the bright red hoodie, eyes drawn to the ‘Oya Oya Oya’ print on the front. “It looks like something Kuroo would own.”

“Because it is mine!” Kuroo protested. “She took it!”

Kenma corrected him, “I gave it to her.”

The team laughed at their antics. It was nice to have everyone together. Even though Yana wasn’t ever officially part of the team she wasn’t treated as an outsider. Her friendship with Kenma and Kuroo was the reason Yana even interacted with the team. She ended up watching most of their official matches and eventually she was adopted as an unofficial member of the team. “I can’t let them see who I am.” Yana whispered; her voice muffled from her mask making it a little harder to hear her. “They know me from Aoba Johsai.”

The team nodded in understanding. Yana was the first to notice the Karasuno students looking over at the commotion confused. Yana looked to Nekoma then back to Karasuno. “You guys haven’t officially told each other your names yet, huh?” She tried to stifle her laughter. “Here, let me introduce them to you.”

Yana gestured to Kuroo, “This guy with the ridiculous bedhead is Kuroo! He is the captain of the team and thinks he is cool, but he really isn’t.” Without pausing she went to the next person. “This strapping young lad is Kenma, he hates getting tired.”

Yana gestured to the next member, “Yamamoto, he really wants a girlfriend but has been having trouble finding one. Probably because of his hair.” She went over to the shortest member of Nekoma, “This is Yaku! He is the mother of seven troublesome kids.”

Kenma, Kuroo, Yamamoto and Yaku all sent Yana a dirty look but let her continue. They wanted to hear what she had to say about everyone else.

“This is Inuoka, he is the most positive out of the team. He reminds me of a Golden Retriever puppy sometimes.” Yana then gestured to the second most reliable player on the team -Yaku is definitely the most reliable- “This here is Kai. He is the vice-captain of the team and a really chill guy. He likes Sea grapes though which are really gross. No one else likes them. And lastly we have Fukunaga.” She gestured to the last regular player on the team. “Yamamoto always tells him to talk more instead of just laughing at his own jokes when he thinks no one else is looking.”

“Ok, that’s quite enough out of you.” Yaku crossed his arms over his chest using his mum voice. Before Yaku could say anymore, the coaches from both schools called their respective teams over to start the match. Yana said her quick ‘see you laters’ and ‘good lucks’ before she retreated from Yaku and scampered towards the second-floor viewing area.

Both teams made their way into the gym, the tension between them somehow dissipated to a mix of excited and nervous energy. One of the taller members who exuded nervous energy turned to his considerably shorter classmate. “Nishinoya? What’s wrong?”

“Asahi, I feel like I've seen that person before.” He ruffled his already tousled up hair. “Somewhere…”

\--------

As Yana made her way up, she thought of Karasuno’s current team composition. They had players that she had never seen before. She eyed each member of the Karasuno starting order. “Sawamura, Tanaka, Tsukishima, Kageyama, Hinata.” She mumbled as she pointed at the corresponding players. “…and two other mystery members.” Yana examined the pair trying to put her newly learned skills to the test.

“Libero?” Yana didn’t want to be presumptuous but the fact that one of the two members was the shortest in the team usually meant that they were the Libero. She wasn’t implying that the Libero is the only role short people can play -look at Hinata for example, he was a Middle Blocker- but more often than not, that was the case. Yana wasn’t entirely sure till she saw him on court wearing the reversed uniform colors. The boy’s fluffed up dark chocolate colored hair was styled upwards giving him a little extra height and the blonde tuft in the center of his head was a surprisingly cute feature on him. He seemed like the kind of person who would have an energy tank and personality far larger than his size. Yana tilted her head. _Haven’t I seen him before?_

_Now that that’s been decided, who the heck is this guy?_ Yana tilted her head and tapped her lips a few times with her finger. _What role do you play?_ The guy was the same height as Tsukishima -roughly- but had much softer features. His long caramel brown hair was styled in a small bun behind his head. He seemed to have a little scruff but from all the way up where she was sitting it was only speculation. _If he had his hair down, he would look like a certain god of a certain faith that I definitely won’t be going to meet after death._ She laughed internally at her own comment. Yana was thankful no one was paying attention to her because they surely would have thought she had lost her mind.

\---------

Yana watched Nekoma’s pregame huddle from the viewing stands. She may not be there herself or even hear what they were talking about, but she knew with every fiber in her being what they were saying.

**_We are the body’s blood…_ **

Kuroo held his fist out in the center of the huddle, **“Flow smoothly…”**

**_…and circulate oxygen…_** Yana continued internally.

**“…so, the ‘Brain’ can function normally.”** Yana and Kuroo said in unison, unknown to each other.

\-------

“Let’s do this!”

Team Nekoma broke the huddle as the match began “Yeah!”

Just before the players took their starting positions Kenma went closer to the net to talk to Hinata. “I said that I think my team is strong, but it’s not because of me.” Kenma looked towards his teammates then back to Hinata, “My team is strong because of everyone.”

Kenma was the first to serve. The ball aimed to the back corner, while it didn’t have the power of Oikawa’s serves it instead had a clean arc. As soon as the ball was in play Kenma took his position. The game had started, and he didn’t want to lose.

“Asahi!”

#3 – presumably ‘Asahi’ sent the ball up in the air and straight to Kageyama to set. Yana immediately looked for the small ball of energy. If she was correct in her guess, then Kageyama would toss the ball exactly where Hinata would already be jumping. Just as she spotted him the ball was slammed down on Nekoma’s side of the court. “Damn, even though I saw the spike coming I wasn’t ready for how fast it was.” Now that she was in the viewing area, she could really see just how fast the ball went.

Yana heard the squeaking of volleyball shoes, the cheers of Karasuno’s team and the sound of the ball being passed around. Yana didn’t care for them at the moment, she was too busy watching Kenma. It wasn’t that he was the most active player on the field -far from it actually -but she could practically hear the cogwheels turning in his head as he took in information.

“Ah, seems like the ‘Brain’ is functioning just as well as ever.”


	23. Kitty Claws

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The results of the match.  
> Cheer squad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why are cats so good at video games?  
> Because they have nine lives! 
> 
> Enjoy

“Nice receive!” Kageyama called out to Tanaka as he easily made contact with the ball. Once more Hinata crossed the court and dashed to the other side, he was already mid jump by the time Inuoka noticed him.

Inuoka hastily jumped up to block Hinata only before Kageyama swiftly changed toss direction and sent it to Asahi, who slammed it to the ground with a force far greater than any of the spikes Yana had seen all match.

“Karasuno got themselves a Libero and a Spiker, how unexpected.” She turned her attention to the whole court. Yana felt like just now she realized what Coach Irihata meant about Karasuno being a mismatched team. The Nekoma members weren’t as individually talented as those from Karasuno but as a collective team there were much more unified. Karasuno on the other hand, seemed to have a mix of incredibly talented individuals who weren’t quite in sync with each other yet. If perchance Karasuno was able to properly combine their strengths, they could be quite a formidable enemy.

\-------

A few more minutes passed before the coach stood up. “Nekoma High School, timeout”

“Our usual way of playing won’t work. Out of their eleven points, #10 has scored four of them, but he also functions as a very effective decoy which frees up the other players to score.” Coach Nekoma let out a single laugh. “Karasuno has really found themselves a monster.”

“Yeah, #10 is crazy.”

Coach Nekoma waved away the thought. “I mean their setter. His tosses are not only incredibly fast but also incredibly controlled. He is able to send the ball to the highest point of the Spiker’s swing. That being said, that toss can’t just go to anyone.”

This time it was Kuroo’s turn to speak. “It only goes to the little orange shrimp.” His hazel cat-like eyes seemed to glow with humor and playfulness. It gave the rest of the team shivers, nothing good came out of that look. “#9 is a genius, we can’t really change that, but we can do something about it. Afterall, a ‘genius’ can’t win if he is only a one-trick pony.”

“Since Shouyou is the pivot point of their attack...” Kenma’s earlier mumbling turned into in-depth ideas. “...all we need to do is stop him. If we let him run around freely, we won’t be able to catch him, so instead we should narrow his range of movement.” Kenma turned to face Inuoka. “You are the most agile person we have, Right?”

“Yes!”

“All you need to do is chase him. Wherever he goes, you go too. Even if a level doesn’t seem clearable at first, after playing it over and over again, you can conquer it.” There was a silence as the team understood what Kenma was implying.

Before timeout was over the Coach gave his final words. “If their #9 and #10 are like an Oni and his iron club then all we need to do is take away the club.”

\--------

“Argggggh, dammit!” Inuoka had jumped countless times trying to stop Hinata and Kageyama’s quick attack. He pouted as he returned to his spot after another failed rally. Nekoma had decided to gather all the blockers on the right whenever Hinata was in Vanguard. The plan was to force Hinata to run to the left and close to Inuoka.

“Inouka may not be the smartest or even the best player. But there is one thing he can do thoroughly…”

Just as predicted Hinata ran to the left.

“…it would be a display of great strength” Nekoma finished.

Hinata jumped and immediately smacked the ball as fast and hard as he could muster.

Inuoka leapt to the side, his reaction time just as fast. “ONE…” his fingers tapped the ball and changed its course. “TOUCH!”

The ball was slowed just enough for Yaku to send a clean dig to Kenma. Kenma jumped up to meet the ball halfway in a setting motion.

\---------

Yana shuddered. She knew exactly what would happen, “Goddamn it, Kenma.”

\---------

Just as Kenma’s fingers grazed the ball, instead of setting it to a spiker he tipped his hand and completed a setter dump. Nishinoya dived for the ball but just missed the chance to save the rally.

\--------

Yaku was the first to touch the ball after Tanaka’s serve. Despite it being it being this late into the game Nekoma’s receives were just as solid as they were in the beginning of the match. “Kenma!”

The ball’s arc made it easy for Kenma to toss up. This time it was Kuroo on vanguard against two blockers. He exhaled and crouched down in a jumping motion. It was a special move that Kenma, Kuroo and Yana had practiced many times.

Asahi and Tsukishima jumped up to block Kuroo.

Kuroo sneered. _Got ‘em._ Just as the two blockers were descending Kuroo then leapt up and slammed the ball down on Karasuno’s side of the court. It was a personal time difference attack. It wasn’t a very popular attack since it wasn’t something a Spiker could use repeatedly, but when used at the right time it was a valuable asset in Nekoma’s repertoire.

\--------

Nekoma’s points slowly continued to grow even after Kageyama had demonstrated a rather particularly straight. Yana found it rather laughable when she compared the two setters. While Kageyama had an almost overwhelming presence on the court, Kenma didn’t stand out at all. For Kenma each ball was delivered right to him, whereas Kageyama had to try and make up for the disorderly receives from his teammates. 

The next rotation had put Kenma opposite Tsukishima. Yana had noted that he was -in plainer terms- the exact opposite of Hinata. He was the type to watch and think things over before reacting. Yana watched as Kenma turned his head slightly to face Kai on his right before swiftly looking back up at the ball. 

Yana shook her head and sighed. “It’s left.”

Tsukishima fell for Kenma’s feint and ran to the right. Just as predicted Kenma tossed it to Kuroo who was on the left. He had used Tsukishima’s strength against him.

From a young age Kenma was always on edge, he wasn’t very good around people and took a while for him to get used to Kuroo and Yana’s advances. Out of the trio it was obvious he was the most observant. It just so happened that when the three of them got into volleyball, Kenma was the most adept at tactical thinking. If anyone could fake out Tsukishima it would be Kenma.

Even without an impressive offence, Nekoma had the better chance at winning. Despite not having a superhuman Ace, Nekoma steadily and carefully scored point after point. As much as Yana thought Kuroo’s chant was stupid, it was accurate. Every single player made smooth receives to circulate the ball and send it to Kenma, ‘The Brain’.

“One touch!” Inuoka yelled. With every toss and spike Inuoka gradually got accustomed to the speed of the ball. Yana closed her eyes briefly as she listened to Inuoka call touch after touch. There was no bias in Yana’s conclusion. She didn't have a shadow of a doubt that Nekoma was going to win. It was only a matter of time.

“Nekoma match point.”

Karasuno’s coach stood up and put his hands in a ‘T’ shape. He needed to kill Nekoma’s momentum. Better late than never. “Karasuno High School, timeout.”

\-------

Time out ended almost too soon. Inuoka took a deep breath and took his position.

**Nekoma serve.**

**Karasuno receive.**

**Karasuno set.**

_“Even if a level doesn’t seem clearable at first, after playing it over and over again”_

**Spike.**

Inuoka sidestepped as soon as he saw Hinata’s feet lift off the floor.

_“You can conquer it.”_

Inuoka grit his teeth and threw every inch of energy he had left into his own jump. He needed to reach the ball, he wanted to reach the ball. This whole game he had been getting closer and closer to stopping the spike. This time for sure he planned on shutting out the quick. He outstretched his left hand just as the ball was spiked right into it.

“Set end. Winner, Nekoma High School.”

\------

Yana relaxed and sat back on her seat. She wasn’t quite sure at what point in the match she stood up. Every time she watched Nekoma play she always remembered what Coach Nekoma had told her during their first meeting.

_“Being able to hit a powerful spike isn’t what will grant you victory. Letting the ball hit the floor means defeat.”_

That way of thinking was almost blasphemous to her previous Demon Coach. If she were to even dare bring that philosophy up, she would probably have to do punishment drills for days.

“Oh! Right!” Yana quickly scrambled up and shouted to Nekoma’s team. “Hey guys!” Everyone on the court looked up where she was standing. Yana untied a white banner which was twice as large as a regular banner. She stood proudly as it unraveled, revealing the words ‘Nice Kill, Nekoma’ in the worst possible -yet readable- writing. Of course, that wasn’t all. Since Yana was oh so dedicated to Kuroo’s chant, the words on the banner were painted to look like dripping blood, complete with the splatters.

The banner was absolutely unsightly and had Coach Nekomata and Yana cackling as the whole Nekoma team cringed. Kuroo was the only person on the team who stood with more pride than earlier. “Hell yeah!”

The Karasuno members looked at the banner utterly confused. They weren’t entirely sure exactly what inside joke the banner was referring to, but even they felt a little secondhand embarrassment for the Nekoma team.


	24. The Sylph

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yana is recognized  
> Libero meet Libero   
> Autographs are signed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always take life with a grain of salt...plus a slice of lemon...and a shot of tequila.
> 
> Enjoy!

Finally got around to finishing off the drawing of Yana. She is in the link below!

[HERE IS YANA!](https://www.instagram.com/p/CCZ6HnzADrU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)

\--------------

It was a solid five minutes before the commotion died down then another five minutes for Yana to pack everything up and greet the team on the now tidied up court. Yana pulled her mask down, but she kept her hood up. “You guys did great!” Yana turned and gave a double high five to Inuoka. “I’m so proud of you.”

Inuoka returned the high five with much more energy than the team thought he had left. He had spent most of the game chasing Hinata and he still had energy to bounce around.

“Our little pupper is growing up.” Kuroo wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. He paused as a shit eating grin made its way to his face.

“No.”

“Yana~”

“No.” She backed up.

Kuroo wrapped his arms around Yana and covered her with his body heat and sweat.”

“Kenma! Help meeeee” Yana squeaked as she attempted to squirm out of Kuroo’s hug. Kenma looked away and pretended that he didn’t see nor hear Yana. She gave up rather quickly and stretched her hand out to try to get Yaku’s attention. “Yaku, save meeee.”

Despite being ‘team mum’, Yaku didn’t make any move to help.

“I don’t know Yana. That banner from earlier. Should I really help you after that?” He shrugged.

“Mwahahaha! Payback!” Yamamoto cackled.

“What a shame.”

Before Yana gave up, she tried one more time to wriggle out of Kuroo’s grip. Unfortunately, all that did was pull her hood off, Yana made eye contact with the little Libero from Karasuno. “Shit.” She fumbled to pull her hood back on. He wasn’t present during the Aoba Johsai practice match so perhaps he didn’t recognize her. Of course, the world had a way of dishing out well deserved Karma.

“You’re ‘The Sylph’!” Nishinoya gasped. Amazement didn’t quite cover the way he felt. It was more like someone took his spark of wonder and poured kerosene all over it. “YEEAAH, you’re awesome!” At this point, the other members of Karasuno gathered around to see what the commotion was all about.

Kuroo slowly released Yana so she could stand on her own. Yana felt the heat grow in her cheeks and reach all the way up to the tips of her ears. It took her a while before she answered. Yana had contemplated lying and saying that he was mistaken, but from the proud grins Kuroo and Kenma were sporting, she couldn’t exactly lie to him. Yana cleared her throat and willed her cheeks to stop blushing. “I’m surprised you realized who I was at a glance.” Yana put on her best camera smile and lowered her hood. “I didn’t think anyone out here would know me.”

“I can’t believe you are actually here! You are like. ARGHHH! You just- I am your fan.” Nishinoya stared at her in awe, no longer able to make coherent sentences. He took the closest person, which just so happened to be Tanaka, and used him to stabilize himself as he jumped up and down in the air.

Yana was honestly impressed as Nishinoya practically did handstands on Tanaka’s shoulders. If anything, she was flattered. She was never a fan-meet kind of person, but she was grateful that people liked her enough to support her.

Nishinoya took both of Yana’s hands in his own. Her hands were calloused both front and back from years of playing. “Can I have your autograph?” His eyes sparkled so brightly that there was no way that Yana could refuse -not that she was planning to say ‘no’ in the first place.

“Sure, but you have to let go of my hands first.”

Nishinoya quickly let go and bounced around all giddy. He ran faster than anyone had seen him move before. Nishinoya pulled a white shirt from his bag that said ‘Three-Point Headstand’ on the back. “Please, sign this!”

Kenma pulled out a marker from who knows where and handed it to Yana. She was about to ask why he was carrying a marker around before she changed her mind. Even if she did ask, she would get a questionable answer that probably wasn’t even the real reason.

“Ah it’s you!” Hinata pointed at Yana finally blurting out what everyone else was thinking.

Yana’s smile didn’t falter despite her inner screeching. “Hi” She replied with a wave.

“You were in the same school as The Great King!”

“Aoba Johsai.”

“Yeah, that.”

There was an awkward silence. While most of the Karasuno team knew Yana from the practice match, Nishinoya did not. “Why are you here?” Kageyama glared at her. As far as he knew, no one except a few select people were allowed to watch.

“What are you? A spy?” Tsukishima sneered, taunting her. “Aoba Johsai really stooped that low, huh?”

Before Yana could reply Yamamoto spoke first. “Yana is an honorary member of our team.”

“We invited her here to watch” Kenma for once put down his phone to defend her.

All the members of the Nekoma team were prepared to stand up for her if need be.

This was one of the rare occasions where Yana let her smile drop. “I came here to watch my friends.” She gestured to the entirety of the Nekoma team. “I don’t care about your team enough to spend my free time watching your school play a practice game.” Yana kept her words even and her face neutral. “I shouldn’t have to explain to you.” There was an awkward pause as the tension between the two teams skyrocketed.

“Soooo, can you sign this?” Nishinoya held up his shirt and the marker with a boyish grin on his face.

A smile graced Yana’s face again, this time more genuine than the last. “Yeah.” With just a few words Nishinoya was able to defuse the tension between the two teams. She had never met anyone who could de-escalate a situation that fast.

Just before Yana was going to write something overly generic, she finally remembered where she saw him from. It was a couple years back, but it was from a magazine that her Demon Coach handed out to the boys’ volleyball team. Yana remembered she was allowed to read it on the condition that she didn’t bring it out of the office.

She began to write on the shirt.

**To: The Guardian Deity,**

**The back row belongs to you.**

**May your game be as tight as the spandex which all volleyball players should wear because it is very good and efficient, but for guys… :D**

**Basketball shorts are ok too.**

**From: The Sylph**

**P.S - Your Rolling Thunder is super cool.**

Yana smirked as she capped the marker and handed back the shirt. The particular magazine she had borrowed at the time had a small excerpt about up and coming Liberos’ outside of Tokyo. Yana typically didn’t bother to read the girls’ volleyball editions because she already knew what would be on it. Yana brushed that thought away as she waited to see Nishinoya’s reaction.

Nishinoya read the autograph and was stunned. The Sylph knew about him. The legendary Sylph herself. He yelled the loudest ‘Yeah’ he could muster as he held on tightly to the shirt. He was going to frame it and keep it as a family heirloom. “My ‘Rolling Thunder’ is pretty cool isn’t it!” Nishinoya was having the time of his life as he celebrated. “Ticking that off my bucket list!”

“Yeah, she used to have a special move too.” Kuroo smirked.

Yana’s eyes widened in realization. “W-wait!” She panicked as she tried to stop Kuroo.

Kuroo easily spoke over flustered Yana “Yana called it ‘Dance of the Wind Fairy”

Yana’s face and ears turned the same shade of red as her hoodie. “Kuroo! You said you wouldn’t tell anyone!” She whimpered as she hid her now bright red face in her hands.

“Oh! That’s really cool sounding too! I remember that! That’s when you went ‘whoosh’ and ‘boof’ with the ball, right?”

Yana had gotten her face back under control despite Kuroo’s teasing and Kenma’s occasional side glances. “Who would have guessed you were famous out here in the country.”

“Sorry, to interrupt but how exactly do you know her?” Suga asked Nishinoya, bewildered by his enthusiasm. Clearly Nishinoya didn’t know Yana from Aoba Johsai.

“What?! You guys don’t know?!” Nishinoya gasped as he turned to his team. “This is Iwaizumi Yana! She is the Number Three Libero of the National Girls’ Division! Better known as The Sylph!”

“Like the fairy?”

“Yeah! The fairy.” Nishinoya’s eyes sparkled. “She is so cool. Her team representing Shōsha Academy are three-time national champions! Three years in a row! Sylph appeared as a first year regular. Shōsha was typically an all offence school so no one expected that they would even have a Libero player.” Nishinoya looked up a video of one of Yana’s games. “This is the most recent video of the National championship match. I’ll show you once we get back to school. We can use the bigger screen there.”

Nishinoya went to face Yana again. “Thank you for the autograph! It’s amazing to meet the number three Libero in the nation!”

“No problem. See you later!” Yana waved before she walked off with Nekoma.


	25. Fairy Libero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Video time  
> Goodbyes  
> Sunday happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did the telephone propose to his girlfriend?  
> He gave her a ring. 
> 
> Happy reading!

Once Karasuno made it back to school Nishinoya immediately looked up video on the bigger screen and cranked up the volume to allow the rest of his team to hear it. The rest of the Karasuno students crowded around him and positioned themselves so they could all watch comfortably.

~~~

_“Welcome back! It’s finally the match you’ve all been waiting for!” The first show anchor announced with visible excitement._

_“It’s been a grueling three days for all the teams but we are finally at the championships!” The second one yelled into the mic almost too enthusiastic._

_“This year we have a new rising school [Chīmu Girls’ High] against the reigning champion for two years in a row, [Shōsha Academy]!_

_“That’s right Tod! Do you think Chīmu will stand a chance against Shōsha?”_

_“If I'm being totally honest Andrew, I'm not really sure. Both teams have vastly different strengths. Shōsha mainly follows the ‘offence is the best defense’ mentality. Even their Libero plays aggressively! Have you seen those backline sets and Libero dumps? Shōsha is a team full of very individually specialized players and high-risk plays.” The anchor took a breath. “Throughout the tournament Chīmu has been shown to beat each team with their clever use of feints and decoys. They are a crafty team and I’m living for it.”_

_Andrew laughed. “I think we can all see who Tod is rooting for.”_

_“What can I say? I like cheering for the underdogs. Anyway, let’s have a look at the team lineups!”_

~~~

Nishinoya skipped the lineup to the end where Yana’s introduction started.

~~~

_“And this is Shōsha’s Libero. Iwaizumi Yana. Since she started playing, she has managed to captivate the audience with her insane saves and fast plays. So much so that she has been dubbed as ‘The Sylph’._

_“I’ve heard quite a lot of well-deserved praise for the Libero, but why Sylph?” Andrew followed up._

_“According to mythology the Sylph is a fairy who is said to have an unusual control of the air. Sylphs are known for their speed, intelligence and foresight. Though they are usually portrayed as guardians. I would say that the ‘Sylph’ is an appropriate nickname for the Libero.”_

_Andrew nodded at his partner’s explanation before he brought up his next question “Until a few years ago Shōsha never really utilized the Libero position, why do you think they suddenly decided to play with one?”_

_“If you were handed a skilled Libero, wouldn’t you want to utilize that skill?”_

_“Fair point.”_

_“Well, that’s enough of us talking! I'm sure you viewers are here to watch the game; this is Tod and Andrew signing out!”_

~~~

The video clipped to the start of the match. Needless to say, the game did not have a slow start. It soon became apparent that Shōsha had begun the match with their highest offensive formation and left Yana to cover the entirety of the back row.

Coach Ukai stood behind his students and watched along with them. He thought the show anchors were exaggerating Yana’s skills, but he was mistaken. No matter where the ball would fall, she would -without fail- get them. Every other Shōsha member never had to dive or scramble for a ball. While that was a good move for the team as a whole, Iwaizumi would soon be running on an empty tank.

It only took a little over fifteen minutes. The first set was easily won by Shōsha Academy. The other school wasn’t bad at all, they were just faced with overwhelming opposition. Coach Ukai pulled up a chair and continued to watch the second set. It didn’t take long before he realized what bothered him about Shōsha’s team. They weren’t a ‘team’ they were a ‘group’. It was like having six Kageyama’s on the field but without his abrasive personality. They each stood alone on the court with only their abilities to trust. Whenever there would be a disconnect or a failed risky play, Iwaizumi would have to try and save it.

There was no doubt in his mind that the other members of Shōsha knew she would ‘fetch’ the ball. Coach Ukai had never seen a Libero dive so many times in one game.

It took a total of forty-seven minutes for the entire match to be over. Shōsha had won the championship a third time.

\---------

“Let’s go out and eat dinner together!” Yana beamed and looked to Yaku with her best puppy eyes. Yana knew everyone else would be onboard with her suggestion, except Yaku. She needed to convince him first.

“What would we even eat?” Yaku crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. It would be hard to find a place that accommodated seven rowdy people.

Yana tilted her chin up proudly. “I have the perfect place, as it just so happens, I already have a table booked for all of us.” She pulled out a little stub of paper. “Let’s go, shall we?”

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER DINNER-----**

It was time. Yana knew it would happen sooner or later, but that didn’t make her dread it any less.

“Come on.” Kuroo sighed and pet her head. “It’s only a few hours away. We won’t be gone forever.”

“I know.”

“We can visit each other during the holidays.”

“I know”

“Video calls are a thing.” Kenma added.

“Yeah.”

“You’ve always been a crybaby” Kuroo smirked as he mussed up her hair

“Shut up.” Yana sniffled.

If Kuroo and Kenma had it their way they would try to convince her to go back to Tokyo, but it was too late for that. At the very least Yana had plans to go back to Tokyo once she graduated. “We have to go now. We’ll call you when we get there.”

Yana gave Kuroo and Kenma their own hugs then wiped her eyes. They were right. It wasn’t forever. She was always a crier as far as anyone could remember. So it was no surprise when she cried again. “You too. Be safe.” She waved as they all got on the bus.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY-----**

It wasn’t long till Sunday rolled around. The air was a little chilly, but the sun was as bright as always. Yana had prepared what she was going to wear the night before so she wouldn’t have a momentary freak out, this time she had her hair in a cute messy bun held together with a striped black and white scrunchie. She was wearing a short-sleeved peach button up which was tucked into her high waisted jean shorts. They were a washed out blue, borderline white color which added to the softer aesthetic she had planned. Instead of her usual shoes she had decided on light brown sandals with gold accents. Yana had finished her look with a soft white cardigan, she considered not wearing one at all and just bracing herself for the cold. Then she changed her mind. No way she was letting herself freeze for the sake of fashion.

The doorbell rang almost too soon. Yana picked up her white shoulder bag and took a quick twirl in front of the mirror “Yeah. I look cute. Probably.” Yana quickly ran downstairs to the door and was greeted by Oikawa.

“Ya-hoo~! You look especially pretty today.”

Yana smiled slightly. “Thanks.” She had received compliments before but somehow getting them Oikawa made little butterflies appear in her stomach. She quickly scanned over what he was wearing. He had dark brown skinny jeans paired with a white and grey U-neck long sleeved shirt which had a single thick red stripe horizontally across the chest area, He had a checkered blue overshirt tied around his waist and black converses with a single print of an alien head on the side to complete the look.

The one thing that surprised her the most, were the glasses. They were strangely adorable on him. She couldn't deny he was pretty without them, but with the glasses on, he looked cute as all hell.

"I honestly thought you'd be a fashion crisis."

"Yana-chan!"

The pair walked out the door and gate of the house. She gave him a quick wink. "You look very cute today, Kawa-chan."

\-------

Oikawa blushed a little at her compliment, he really shouldn't be flustered over being called cute, fangirls say it all the time. But when Yana said it -even though she was just teasing him- Oikawa felt his face heat up and pink dusting appear on his cheeks. He would need to treat Iwa-chan to some ice cream or something for the help. Iwa-chan had spotted Oikawa prior to the date and practically dragged him back inside for an outfit change. He said something along the lines of ‘You look like shit’. _I thought I looked fine though._

"So where are we going?" Yana asked as they both continued to walk to the shopping center.

Oikawa huffed, pleased with himself. "I have just the place planned, come follow me."


	26. Gilded Fairy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of date  
> Announcement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Single by choice, but just not my choice.
> 
> Happy Reading

From the outside the establishment looked like a quaint and tastefully decorated coffee shop. The pair were seated in a booth beside the window and out of the way from most of the other tables. The menu choices seemed to be a variety of finger foods, and a huge selection of drinks. Everything from milkshakes and smoothies to juice and coffee. A waitress promptly came over to take Oikawa and Yana’s order.

“White chocolate and caramel latte please” Oikawa gave his signature smile to the waitress before he turned to Yana.

Taking the cue, Yana was next to order, “A Mochaccino please.”

The waitress nodded and just as she came, she left.

“Project?”

“Yana-chan, this is a date!” Oikawa gasped. He really didn’t want to work on the project. He brought the things he needed for the project but that didn’t mean he wanted to actually work on it.

Yana already knew Oikawa had no intention of working on their project, so she came prepared. “I know, I know.” She rummaged in her bag before she found what she was looking for. “Here." Yana passed him a little USB. "It has everything I have on it. You just need to cross reference it with yours.”

“Yana-chan…” Oikawa looked up at her in awe. He took the USB and carefully stashed it away for him to use later. “You came here for a date. Like a proper date, I'm touched”

Yana looked to the side pouting. “Do you think I’d really try to look pretty if it was just a study date?” Yana mumbled, just loud enough for Oikawa to hear.

Oikawa clutched his shirt over where his heart would be and fake swooned, “Yana-chan! You dressed up for me!” He smirked, “Though, you look pretty no matter what you wear.”

The tips of Yana’s ears turned a bright red, but other than that she didn’t react. It was then that Oikawa noticed that whenever Yana was flustered or embarrassed the tips of her ears would turn red. Her expression may not show those two emotions, but her ears certainly did. Oikawa thought it was the cutest thing he had ever seen and that’s a lot of things. People usually fell for him, not the other way around. _I am definitely not falling for her, what the hell am I thinking about?! This is Yana-chan! Iwa-chan’s cousin. I'm not falling for my best friend’s cousin, that’s crazy talk._

“Here are your drinks. Please enjoy” The waitress put down both drinks.

Yana nodded a quick thanks and took a small sip. It was nice. The last time she had a Mochaccino was the last day she lived in Tokyo. Honestly, she was kind of surprised. Looking back on it now, since she moved here, the days passed as quick as light, she didn’t know when it happened or how it happened but eventually, she enjoyed her time in Aoba Johsai. For a split second she considered it was Oikawa then dismissed the thought. She refused to humor such a ridiculous idea. She was enjoying her time because of the volleyball club and all its members. Emphasis on the ‘all’.

“Oikawa.” A few seconds passed. “Oikawa. Hello?” No response. “Oikawa, come back to earth.”

“H-hm? Yes? Sorry I was thinking.”

“A dangerous pastime” She nodded playfully.

“I know, right?”

The pair laughed at their own senseless humor. They chatted round a wide variety of topics to try and find one that wasn’t just volleyball. Despite the frequent topic hopping the conversation was still uplifting and littered with smiles. Yana had spent a considerable amount of time with Oikawa, they were in the same class and club, but this was probably the first time they had a conversation just for the sake of enjoying each other’s company.

\-------

“Really? **[--------------]** All the way out there?”

“Dude, why them? We are right next to Nekoma, why bother going that far out?”

“Because they went to Karasuno. Why don’t we **[-------------]** ”

“I bet it’s because **[---------------]”**

“No. That’s not the reason, it’s just a coincidence that **[---------]”**

“Whatever **[-------------]** , if you’re sure.”

\--------

“What is that? A cow?”

“No!” Yana pouted as she showed him a drawing of a pelican.

“Let me see closer” Oikawa moved his hand closer to Yana’s hand to reach for the paper but instead ended up grabbing her wrist by accident.

\----------

_‘Zumi! You know you aren’t allowed to see them! What do you think you are doing? I’m the only one who is allowed to touch you.’_

\---------

Yana jerked her arm away and slapped Oikawa’s hand off her wrist, the motion knocked over one of the empty cups. A silence that seemed to last an eternity was broken by the sound of shattering glass.

Oikawa saw in her eyes, the windows to her soul, fear was etched in Yana features as her facade crumbled into a grimace.

“S-sorry” her voice was small as she apologized. Her hands were visibly trembling. The room seemed like it was spinning as her ears burned from a high-pitched buzz. “I-I uh, I’ll see you in school tomorrow.” Yana hastily pulled out money to pay for both of their drinks and a little extra for the cup. She gave him a shaky smile before she left the stunned Oikawa sitting at the booth.

**_-_ ** **\----THAT EVENING-----**

“Kuroo. Kenma.” Yana whimpered as she lay on her stomach under her blankets. “I totally fucked up.”

“What’d you do?” Kenma asked as he tried to shove Kuroo away from his apple pie.

“I freaked out when he grabbed my wrist then I knocked over a glass and finally I paid and practically ran back home.” Yana plopped her face into her pillow. “I did text him earlier though, I said I was sorry and that it was just a thing I have a bad reaction with. He seemed to take that as an answer."

Kuroo and Kenma froze with a frown on their faces. “What do you mean he grabbed your wrist?” Kuroo’s voice was low and deliberate. Call them overprotective but it wasn’t without reason. There was a very good reason for them to react that way.

“No, no! Nothing like that. It was just an accident!”

“That’s what you said before.” Kenma clicked his tongue agitated.

“This time it is. Ok? I promise.” Yana tried to calm them both down “See I'm fine! Plus, he is Hajime’s best friend! They’ve known each other since they were kids. Nothing like that would happen.”

Kuroo sighed and dragged a hand down his face. “Fine. Fine.”

“If he does anything. I mean anything. You will tell us. Got it?” Kenma crossed his arms and waited for Yana to respond.

“I promise I will.” Yana smiled. A warm fuzzy feeling bubbled up inside of her. She always thanked her lucky stars that she was blessed with the two best damn friends in the world. Yana honestly didn’t know where she would be without them.

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY-----**

Yana had told Hajime that she was going to go on ahead. It was Oikawa’s turn to open up the Gym which meant he would be the first to be there. She needed to apologize to him.

As soon as she got to school and spotted the brunette, she immediately beelined her way to him. “Oikawa!”

“Yana-chan. Are you ok?”

She quickly stopped him before he could say anymore. “I'm sorry. It was my fault and I even ditched you after that too.” Yana fidgeted in place a little. “I, um. I don’t really like having my wrists grabbed. Hands are fine, just not wrist. It’s because…” She paused trying to figure out a way to tell him. There were memories she’d rather never have to look back on again.

“Stop.” Oikawa pet her head gently. “That was my bad. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. You don’t need to force yourself to tell me.” He grinned and smoothly transitioned to a different subject. “Besides, I got to spend most of my afternoon with a cute girl and even finished off cross-referencing the project.” He handed her the USB and flicked her nose in the process. “Aren’t I just the greatest partner ever?”

Yana scoffed and rolled her eyes playfully. “I don’t know about that. You chose Aliens as our topic. Aliens!”

“I don’t see what’s so wrong about that.” Oikawa shrugged proudly.

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER MORNING PRACTICE-----**

“Everyone gather around.” Coach Irihata blew his whistle to get the rest of the team’s attention. “As you all know, the Inter-high tournament is coming up. of course, our aim is to win first place.” He paused for a moment. “A school from Tokyo reached out to us recently.” The Coach snuck a look at Yana’s reaction.”

“A school from Tokyo?” Kindaichi perked up.

Yahaba was the next to speak “Oh, what if Yana knows them?”

“That’d be kind of cool” Hanamaki nodded.

The coach waited for the team to settle down before he continued. To be perfectly honest, he was surprised that a big school from Tokyo contacted him and asked for a practice match. The two schools had no prior connections. He wasn’t saying he didn’t want the offer; he was just curious as to why them. “We will be up against Shōsha Academy’s Boys’ Volleyball Club.”


	27. Pink Lip-gloss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Count down to the practice match   
> Aiko x Rini   
> Oikawa is bad at stalking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, you've reached 1-800-NARCISSIST, how can you help me?
> 
> Happy reading!

“You mean that powerhouse school that won nationals three years in a row?”

Yana stiffened; she clenched her hands into fists while she answered his question. “The Girls’ Volleyball Team and the Boys’ Volleyball Team are at vastly different levels. The boys went to nationals but were knocked out of the running by the second game. Since then, the Coach treated them like an afterthought and only focused on the girls’ club. The Girls’ Volleyball Club won all three nationals.”

At first the team wondered why Yana knew insider information on the Shōsha Academy teams. That was before Hajime put two and two together. “That’s your old school from when you lived in Tokyo, right?”

Yana kept her expression as pleasant as she could muster and feigned excitement,” Yep! I know some people from that club too. Usually they have matches against Nekoma though. Both schools are practically next to each other so it’s the most convenient. Since I moved here, I'm not sure who the Captain is though.”

Despite how perfect Yana’s façade was, Oikawa was the only person who saw through it. Yana was definitely not looking forward to the practice match and she certainly wasn’t looking forward to meeting the teams. “Why does the captain matter?” Oikawa furrowed his eyebrows confused. Usually team captains had no real role when it came to making bigger decisions, like the aforementioned practice match.

“The Coach allows the Captain of the boys’ team to choose which school they want to go against in practice matches - within reason of course.”

Coach Irihata finally got his answer. It was only mere speculation but there was a high chance that he was right. Shōsha Academy might want to scope out the school that Yana was attending. It wasn’t every day a star player would move out into the country and fall off the grid. “The match will be held the day after tomorrow. Prepare well.”

The coach dismissed the team. Before everyone scattered to do whatever they had planned to do, Oikawa spoke up. “Let’s show this Tokyo school that they aren’t such a big deal.”

The rest of the grinned, now pumped up. “Yeah!”

\---------

"Yana!"

Yana turned around to the familiar sound of Rini’s voice. "Oh, hey!" It seems this time Rini went for a more relaxed style, for a while she had been trying to go for the cutesy look. Yana assumed that Rini had read some sort of article about 'changing your style' and wanted to try it out. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing Rini tried in her attempts to seduce Aiko.

Rini caught up with Yana and whispered to her. "Have you seen Aiko?"

Yana gestured to the classroom, "He is just talking about something with the teacher, he should be out soon."

Rini glanced around looking suspicious before she whispered in Yana’s left ear. "How are things with you and Oikawa?"

Yana almost choked. “Nothing is happening Rini. It's just the project."

Rini raised an eyebrow and gave Yana the face. "You are both in the same club, the same class and are working on the project together. You are living out a fangirl's fantasy!" Rini huffed "There has to be something that happened! Give me the juicy details."

"Nope. Nothing." Honestly Yana wasn't about to tell Rini about the date and especially not about the night in the park. She liked Rini, she really did. But sometimes, without realizing it, Rini was a bit loose lipped. Some stories were better left unsaid.

"Rini, Yana. Sorry for the delay. I'm good to go now."

"No problem."

Rini blushed when she saw Aiko, he was rocking a spectacular behead. Rini wasn’t sure what to say. She wanted to gush and fangirl over him but that would be too weird. _But oh, his hair looks so fluffy. He just looks so cute. I can’t even imagine how sexy it would be to see his face in the morning right next to mine. Just cuddling and maybe watching a movie together._ Rini sighed wistfully.

"Rini."

"Hm?" He was brought out of her daydreams by Aiko’s tapping. “What was that? Sorry I didn’t hear.”

Aiko sighed and flicked Rini’s forehead. "I said that your new lip-gloss suits you."

Yana and Rini were stunned, Aiko, who never noticed anything, actually noticed Rini's lip-gloss. Yana wasn’t even aware that Rini had lip-gloss on.

“T-thank you!” Rini’s grin was bright enough to light up the entire school, she was always trying to find ways to seduce him, and sometimes with how clueless he was it was a little disheartening, but it was small comments like these which made her heart flutter. She was absolutely smitten with this boy.

\--------

“Do you think Yana is ok?” Kenma asked as he flopped forward on the cafeteria table.

Kuroo shrugged and took a bite out of his lunch. He would much rather be eating grilled salted mackerel pike right about now, but he forgot to wake up early and make it. “She said she was ok.”

Kenma grumbled “She said that last time.”

“I know.”

Kenma pouted as he ‘Game Over’ screen came up on his phone. He had been trying to beat the level for hours but only got so far as halfway. “What if it’s the same as last time? Except this time, we aren’t there.”

Kuroo didn’t reply and instead opted to fill his mouth with food. The last time they visited, Yana looked perfectly fine. So, although he was worried Kuroo had enough faith that it wouldn’t be as bad as last time.

Taking the hint Kenma changed the topic as he started the level again. “So, who is our next practice match? We have one more before the summer camp, right? The one with Fukurodani, Ubugawa and Shinzen.

“Kenma, the coach told all of us this morning.”

“It was early. I was sleepy.”

Kuroo huffed. “This year we won’t be having another practice match but instead are just going straight till the summer camp. Shōsha Academy didn’t request a match with us this season.” He shrugged thinking nothing of it. It was only one less practice match.

\---------

Yana had trouble focusing in class. It wasn’t new content, but she would keep making stupid mistakes in her work. A miscalculation there, a grammar error here, what happened in 1849 again? This was probably one of the few -perhaps maybe the first- times she wanted to just leave early and go home. She just didn’t want to do anything except sleep, after dinner of course. Yana could just barely keep up with whatever topics Rini bounced between them at lunch. Usually Yana had no trouble with that. But then again, usually Shōsha Academy didn’t bother themselves with any school this far out of Tokyo.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----END OF AFTERSCHOOL PRACTICE-----**

Yana blew her whistle in one short tweet signaling the end of the cooldown exercises. “That’s all for today” Yana finished writing her observations of the team and possible strategies to use in different matches. She was surprised they turned out so well considering that for the earlier part of the day she felt so lethargic and completely out of it.

Oikawa practically skipped towards her, “Yana-chan~ Let’s go home together!”

“I'm going with Hajime.” Yana deadpanned. She shot him down without hesitation.

“I live in that direction too!”

“The three of us have been walking home together for weeks now. Why are you even asking at this point? You basically stalk us.”

"Iwa-chan! I want to walk beside you both! Not just sneaky, sneaky behind you."

Yana didn't really know how to react to that. She had a feeling that Oikawa was trailing behind them back to where he lived but she never really confirmed it. Months had already passed, and only now did he actually ask to walk beside them. To be fair both Iwaizumis' thought Oikawa would just run up and walk beside them one day but, apparently that was not the case. Yana conceded, "You can if you want. The three of us are all going the same direction anyway."

Oikawa gasped; he was delighted. “Yana-chan!" In either spontaneity or habit Oikawa came in for a hug. Unlike Hajime, Yana did not have a penchant for hitting Oikawa when he came close. She didn't refuse his hug, it's not like it was uncomfortable. It was just a little surprising.

\----

It wasn’t too long into the walk back home before Yana asked her question. “Does Aoba Johsai have any connections with a school from Tokyo? Or is this the first time this has happened?”

“This is the first time. Why do you ask?”

Yana bit her bottom lip as she contemplated on if she was going to tell the full truth or not. “I was just curious.” She decided to not. She didn’t want to bother them with her worries. It was all speculation and a little bit of paranoia.

As soon as she got home and said her goodbyes, Yana called Kuroo and Kenma. It didn’t even take three rings for both of them to answer the video call. “Does Shōsha Academy have a practice match with Nekoma?” She asked right away before she even greeted the two boys.

“Wow, nice to see you too. My poor heart.” Kuroo fake swooned overdramatically.

Thankfully Kenma answered. “Not this time. They decided to go somewhere else. Why’d you ask?”

“They are coming to Aoba Johsai.”


	28. Oh Captain, My Captain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day of the match   
> Shōsha Academy meets Aoba Johsai  
> Yana reunites with some old schoolmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time you have company over, serve them a bowl of deshelled peanuts. After they've eaten a few handfuls, casually mention that you've never liked peanuts, but you love to suck the chocolate off them. 
> 
> Happy reading!

“Excuse me?” Kuroo righted himself up now fully serious. “Who is the Captain?”

“I'm not sure” Yana sighed and ran her fingers through her long hair. She was not looking forward to the match or seeing anyone from her old school for that matter.

“Will you be ok?” Kenma asked, his game paused so he could pay better attention.

Yana groaned as she flopped face down onto her bed, she wasn’t really sure what to say. If she said ‘yes’, she would be lying, but If she said ‘no’ they would get worried. So, she chose the next best option. ‘Pretend to be asleep’.

“Yana!”

“We know you aren’t asleep!”

“I am asleep, snooooooreeeeee” Yana grumbled in response.

**_-_ ** **\----DAY OF THE MATCH-----**

The day of the match had come far too soon in her opinion. Yana did consider being ‘sick’ and not coming to school at all, that was until she realized she had a test during last period. There was no way she was skipping a test. Yana sat down on the locker room bench and sighed. _It’s fine. This is fine._ Yana wiped her hands on her shorts before she began to tie her shoelaces.

Once she scrambled to put on her ‘Coach’ jacket she began to pace up and down the room as if she were determined to wear down the tiles, her eyes slowly looked down to the door handle. Once she opened that door, she needed to have her game face on. It’s not like she had trouble with the other members of the Shōsha team, in fact she almost liked some of them. It was just one person she never wanted to see again. _Yana, didn’t you say you were done being scared of him?_ She clenched her fist tightly and took a long breath in. She tried to clear the ringing in her ears. This was not the time for her to be like this. She was here for Aoba Johsai as their Student Coach. “I need to get a fucking grip.” Yana growled under her breath. She gripped the door handle -with a little too much force than was strictly necessary- and walked out with as much hollow confidence as she could muster. _Fake it till you make it._

“Yana-chan!” Oikawa chirped. He was a little nervous about the Tokyo school coming on that day but after spending most of last night watching clips and videos on the Shōsha Academy Boys’ Volleyball Club he had swiftly decided that they weren’t as good as Shiratorizawa’s team. “Come on, the team is gathered by the door.”

“What? Door? Why?”

“Everyone is excited and ready for their arrival.” Oikawa looked at her like he had said the most natural thing in the world. For him it probably was, but for Yana it was something that didn’t really happen.

The longer she thought about it the longer it made sense. Shōsha Academy never held practice matches in their school gym, they would always be invited by other schools. It was because of this that the concept of waiting for the other team by the door was so foreign to her. She simply had no idea that it was something that teams actually did.

“Look, the bus is here!” Kindaichi practically vibrated on the spot.

“What a fancy looking bus” Kunimi deadpanned, unlike Kindaichi he wasn’t very impressed nor interested at all.

Seven people clad in grey and baby pink stepped out of the bus. Yana held back a grimace as she saw her previous Demon Coach, he looked like he had aged years even though it had only been a few months. His grey hair was now thinning, and his sunken eyes seemed much more pronounced.

“He looks like he is one step away from mummification.”

Yana tried to stop her laugh which only resulted in a quiet snort. “I found that funnier than it actually was. Now go, go, we have to line up to greet the other school.” All the Aoba Johsai students straightened up, Oikawa in the center with Hajime on his right and Yana on the left edge. The rest of their teammates filled in the remaining spots.

Walking front and center of the Shōsha Academy team was -which everyone assumed- the Captain. The captain stood at 6’2” feet (189cm) tall. His angular face and rounded jaw matched well with his messy silver hair. It was styled into a blown quiff, which was a new alteration from the last time Yana saw him.

He stopped right opposite Oikawa, gave him a quick once over and scoffed. “Iseri Kou, Captain and Middle Blocker of Shōsha Academy’s Boys’ Volleyball club.” A grin spread over Iseri’s face, it was wide, open and showing his overly whitened teeth. In that moment his motives were laid bare; he was the type of person who enjoyed whatever torment he could inflict on others. He held his hand out for a handshake.

“Oikawa Tooru, Captain and Setter.” He went in for the handshake but before they touched Iseri moved his hand away.

“My hand got tired waiting. We’ll be going inside.” Iseri and his team walked in leaving Oikawa a mix between pissed and stunned. The audacity of this Iseri guy.

“Hey girlie! I thought I saw you!” One of the Shōsha members practically skipped over to Yana, with a puppy dog grin on his face. Unlike his very irritating captain this member seemed to at least be a little more affable. He seemed rather excitable and spritely. “I'm Kechi Tanji, a kind of friend of Yana’s. I play setter too!” Kechi tilted his head once he saw the team. “Hm, looking lovely in a garden of flowers as usual.”

Before Yana could say anything, Kechi circled around the team like a hawk to its prey. His eyes found Oikawa. Kechi hummed and nodded in approval until he saw Oikawa’s backside. Kechi sighed, “We all have our faults.”

Oikawa gasped as the rest of his teammates snickered quietly.

“Oh! Hello sir, look at those arms” Kechi gushed over Hajime. “Please hold me baby.”

Kechi quickly moved on, it was his personal mission to love and care for all the flowers. “And you, those dead eyes, oh baby they light a fire inside of me” He feigned a shudder. His next target after Kunimi was Kindaichi, “That turnip hair? I'm digging it.”

“Kechi…” Yana sighed weakly trying -but not really trying- to stop him. She did kind of want to know what he was going to say. It had only been a few months, but he had already gotten more outrageous.

Kechi gave a quick once over at Hanamaki. “You have your charms.” Then to Watari “Oh, you look like such a soft boy, I want to touch your buzzcut.” Keichi ran his fingers through his slicked back blond hair. There was one more left, Matsukawa was in his line of fire. “You look like a spicy meal. I’d love to take a bite out of that.”

Matsukawa raised an eyebrow then decided to play along. “Not so bad yourself, hot stuff” Matsukawa winked with a lazy smirk on his face.

“Woah, woah, woah. Dude, I have a girlfriend.” Kechi put his hands up defensively. “I'm very loyal to my darling thank you very much.” Kechi backed off and fanned himself. “But uh, I appreciate the compliment.” He blushed acting like an innocent schoolgirl.

“Kechi. Get over here.”

“Oop that’s me. Bye bye!” He made a break for the door after he blew them all a kiss.

“Is that, uh norm-”

“Yes.” Yana answered before Hajime finished his question. Saying Kechi was a friend was stretching it a bit, he was more like a club associate. Yana wasn’t close enough to him that she would say, wave to him in the grocery store outside of school. She began to gently corral her teammates inside “Let’s just get ready too.”

\-----------

Yana had taken a detour to refill her water bottle. She was feeling a little restless now that she had reunited with some of her old schoolmates. Honestly, she was thankful she hadn’t yet had a conversation with her Demon Coach. Yana shuddered at the thought. _Though, he is only the second on the ‘people I don’t want to meet’ list._

“Hey there, Zumi. I wondered where you went.”

_Shit._ Yana wasn’t sure how to proceed. Does she ignore him? Politely greet him? Smile? Run at the speed of light in the other direction? “Iseri.” She stopped. Iseri had decided to stand in front of the door leading out of the hallway and on to the court.

“Oh, come now. Is that anyway to greet me, Zumi?”

“I don’t think we are on good enough terms for me to greet you in any other way.” Out of habit she pretended to casually pull her sleeves down as far as they could go without looking too out of place. Thankfully they were long enough to reach the middle of her hands. “What are you doing here?”

Iseri took a step closer to her. “How cruel. All the memories we shared, and you don’t even ask how I'm doing? It’s been so long, my Zumi.”


	29. Clipped Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yana reunites with Iseri  
> Part one of her backstory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THERE IS A TRIGGER WARNING. - I'm letting you know in advance in case you feel uncomfortable reading about it. It'll be marked with ***these things***. It's a small flashback, that will be summed up in one sentence in the end notes.  
> \---  
> When I look into your eyes, I see straight through to the back of your head.
> 
> Happy(?) Reading!

It took all of Yana’s willpower not to bolt right there and then. Yana would have given herself a pat on the back with how much self-control she had, except that she was too busy trying to feign as much confidence into her persona as possible.

“It was a pain in the ass trying to find you, darling. Once I found you again, I needed to usurp the previous Captain.” He chuckled. “As you can tell, I’m the Captain now.”

“A bad choice on the team’s part if I'm being honest. To think they have lost their minds enough so that they’d vote for you to be the new Captain.” She glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Now, now, Zumi. Don’t say that. I've only said such nice things about you. I miss you a whole lot.”

Yana scoffed. “Oho, that’s rich coming from you. Why don’t you go run along back to Aki? I'm sure she misses you a whole lot.” She desperately tried to hide how fearful she was with her hostility.

“Babe, I already told you, my one true love is you” Iseri held out both his hands to try and reach for her.

Yana laughed heartlessly, “Then maybe you shouldn’t have cheated on me for my now ex best friend.” She sang in a sing-song voice that ended in a low growl. They both knew what they were arguing about was just shallow nonsense, they were evading the real problem. But what he did wasn’t exactly something you could bring up in a casual conversation. He took another step forward and Yana took a step back unable to hold her ground.

Iseri sneered, “Don’t be like that baby. You know I love you very much.” He took another step forward. “I’ll give you another chance. Yeah? How about that Zumi? Your annoying childhood friends aren’t here to butt in this time.” He knew he had the upper hand now. The way she cowered was so cute, but so problematic. His hands easily found her wrists and pulled her a bit closer, so they were only a mere forearm’s distance apart.

“Yana-chan! Where’d you go?” A voice echoed through the plain whitewashed halls.

“Yana?” Iseri raised an eyebrow perplexed. “You never let me call you Yana.” He paused as he listened to the voice longer. “Oh. I get it now. It’s the team isn’t it?”

“They call me Yana because there is another ‘Iwaizumi’ here” She hissed; a disgusted scowl plastered on her face.

“Zumi, for as long as I've known you – which is a very long time- you’ve never let anyone call you by your first name repeatedly-except those pesky childhood friends of yours." He clicked his tongue. "However, since coming here, you’ve allowed not one but all of the Aoba Johsai team to call you ‘Yana’. I mean calling out ‘Yana’ is much easier than ‘Iwaizumi’. So, which one was first?” He snickered.

Iseri abruptly yanked Yana’s wrist and pulled her close enough so he could whisper in her ear, “Or maybe you spread your legs for all of them at the same time.” Iseri’s smirk disappeared as fast as it came. “It’s ok though, I still want you even if you’ve been fucked silly. Maybe this time you’ll be more willing, yes?” He laughed before he retreated back and let go of her. “I'm sure I can make you feel way better than they ever could. After all, I didn't get to make sweet love to you yet.” He licked his lips slowly as he undressed her with his eyes.

Yana suppressed a shudder while her mind screamed. Snippets of unpleasant memories flashed before her eyes.

\--------***

_“I never lived a moment of my life, before meeting you. You can't be separated from me! You are mine. You can’t be anything else." He grabbed her wrist and pinned them above her head against a wall._

_Yana struggled and tried to fight back but to no avail. “NONONONONO GET AWAY FROM ME. LET GO OF ME ISERI! SOMEONE HELP!”_

_“Shh, shh, baby calm down. No need to scream.” He covered her mouth with his left hand. “You have to relax, or it’ll hurt. I don’t want to hurt you, baby. Behave for me, Zumi.”_

_Tears rolled down Yana’s face as she kept thrashing. She opened her eyes and her blood ran ice cold upon seeing an almost inhuman, feral grin on his face. It was his eyes which scared her the most though. It was an unsightly obsession that was twisted into ‘love’._

\---------***

“What do you think you are doing with our Student Coach?” Oikawa’s voice suddenly snapped Yana out her trance. Instead of being his usual playful self, his voice was hard as he stared Iseri down.

“Oikawa.” Upon seeing him, relief flooded Yana’s system.

Oikawa wasn’t there for any of the conversation, but he could tell from body language alone that Yana was incredibly uncomfortable. He walked closer and gently placed the palm of his hand flat on Yana’s back to reassure her before he gently pulled her next to him and further away from Iseri. “If you are hitting on Yana-chan, I suggest you choose someone else.”

“Oi Trashykawa why’d you run off like that? Did you find Yana?” Iwaizumi shouted as he rounded the corner with Matsukawa and Hanamaki beside him. They paused as they took the scene in.

Hanamaki furrowed his eyebrows “Yana, are you ok?” Her complexion was a little paler than usual and she looked one step away from a breakdown.

“Fine” She managed to force out once she had regained her bearings.

“You don’t look like it.” Matsukawa handed Yana back her water bottle that she wasn’t even aware she dropped.

“Wow, Zumi. You’ve been working hard it seems. I'm willing to bet the first one was the Captain. He seems the easiest to coax.”

Before anyone could say anything about Iseri’s comment the Shōsha volleyball team Coach called for him. “Looks like I’ll have to go. See you all on the court.” Iseri waved them goodbye and walked through the doors.

Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. They had known Iseri for all of one hour and already they were tired of dealing with him. “Who is he to you?” Hajime was the one to break the ice.

Yana stiffened. “My ex.”

Oikawa immediately turned to face her. Of course, she had an ex, he had an ex himself too. Though for some reason it was just so shocking to him. She dated Iseri, of all the people she could have chosen from, she went for that dirtbag? Oikawa himself was obviously the superior choice.

“That must have been a bad breakup” Matsukawa shrugged.

“No, it was the best decision of my life.”

No one doubted that answer, but they had just skirted around the next question they had for her. No one was quite sure on how to ask; Oikawa took it upon himself -as the captain- to ask the difficult question. He glanced at her wrists then back to her eyes. “Was it him?” It wasn’t quite the question the team were looking for, but it intrigued them nonetheless.

Yana didn’t answer at first as she contemplated if she was going to tell them. “It’s a long story.”

“The court is being cleaned” Hanamaki added, “Some kid from Shōsha spilled something all over the floor.”

Yana’s confusion was visible. “Why is this information important?”

“We have a fair amount of time before they finish cleaning it, is what I'm trying to say” Hanamaki clarified.

Yana knew there was no escaping now. “I think we should probably change locations then. I don’t want to share my tragic backstory in the hallway” she gave a single half-hearted laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood. This would be the first time she would recount her story.

\--------

“#1,Iseri. Are you causing more trouble again?”

“Coach Omori, my dude. Me? Trouble? Of course not.” Iseri gave the Coach his signature roguish smile.

Coach Omori simply rolled his eyes. “Did you see Iwaizumi?” He shook his head, “I can’t believe she pulled herself down the level of club manager. What a waste. Aoba Johsai is missing out.”

“Manager?” Iseri grinned, his smile anything but pleasant “Coach, you’ve got it all wrong. Zumi is Aoba Johsai’s Student Coach.”

\---------

All five students sat hidden in the corner of the second floor viewing area. It was a place where they could easily see the court but also not be heard or walked in on by the general populace. For the story to make sense Yana needed to give them a little background information first. “As you all know by now, I was part of the Shōsha Academy Girls’ Volleyball team. We played competitively and made it to nationals three times.”

The boys nodded, there was nothing new there.

Yana shifted in place a little as she tried to decide where to start her story. “When I was in middle school, I was also on the volleyball team. Nakajima Aki, Sawa Eiko, Oshima Chou and I were all in the same team. As it turns out Shōsha Academy had offered the four of us sports scholarships. So, all the way from middle school to second year high school we were on the same team. As soon as we joined the team we were promoted to regulars and knocked all the second years to the bench. Shōsha Academy is the kind of team where offensive capabilities meant everything. Risky plays were not an uncommon occurrence. As a Libero, of course I couldn’t attack so instead it was my job to catch every single ball. If it was humanly possible, I had to receive it. Heaven forbid I let one of my other teammates receive it.” Yana scowled at a particularly annoying save. She had leapt over so many benches, chairs and barriers just to keep a rally going that Yana was almost convinced that she had a future on the hurdle team.

“Anyway. The Coach kept trying to instill into us that winning was everything. Winning was absolute and only the strong stood on top. Whenever we made a mistake, be it a practice match or an official match, he would make us do punishment drills. Eventually, losing became synonymous with punishment. Shōsha Academy -being a powerhouse school- frequently received interviews and of course as the players, we had to act out like we were the perfect team. Publicity was always always a big deal for Shōsha Academy. By the second month the Coach managed to change the entire team structure to his liking and some of us changed more than others.

“We fought for first place. Not for the pride or the glory of winning, but because we were scared of what would happen if we were to lose.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He is an abusive ex.


	30. Flightless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yana's backstory part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is another TRIGGER WARNING with ***these things***  
> \-----  
> It's bad luck to be superstitious
> 
> Enjoy!

Yana fiddled with the tips of her hair as she continued to recount her story. “The team was far from perfect. It was a toxic situation where everyone blamed each other for their mistakes. As a Libero, whose only job was to keep the ball off the floor, the blame always landed on me.”

\--------

_“Iwaizumi! You couldn’t even catch that?”_

_“What kind of Libero are you if you can’t do your job”_

_“Why do you even play if you are just going to drag us down?”_

_“Useless Libero.”_

\--------

“Shōsha had only received third place once. It was my fault. I couldn’t get the rebound fast enough from one of Aki’s blocked spikes.”

There was a moment of silence as the other four students looked at each other. That was the most toxic team environment they had ever heard of in a group. Before any of them could say anything, Yana continued.

“Iseri was from the boys’ team so we saw each other frequently because of practice. It wasn’t long before we ended up dating.” Yana took a deep breath. “He made me feel like I wasn’t useless and that not everything was my fault.” Yana grit her teeth and huffed. “I should have seen the signs.”

\---------

_"Zumi! Where are you going?” Iseri flagged her down from the other side of the hallway._

_Yana didn’t stop walking. “To my next class, shouldn’t you go to yours too?"_

_"Nah I can walk you. I’ll only be a little late so it’s all good."_

\-----

_"Zumi who is that?" he waited outside her classroom door and pointed at the boy who just walked out._

_"My friend, he is in the next class over"_

_"Do you like him more than me?"_

_"What?! No!"_

\------

_“Zumi what have you been doing all day?”_

_“It’s a school day. I’ve literally been in class.”_

_“Did you talk to anyone?”_

_\-------_

_“Zumi I think you should stop talking to him.”_

_“But he is my friend.” Yana huffed; she was a little confused as to why he would say such things._

_\------_

_“What’d you get up to?”_

_“Uh, same as when you asked three hours ago?”_

\-------

“At first, I thought it was simple concern, or interest then I soon found it suffocating. He wanted to do everything together. He needed to know everything about me. I wasn’t permitted to do things on my own or with someone else.” She shuddered. “Then it got worse.”

\------

_“Why did you leave without me Zumi?” He grabbed her wrist and yanked her back into his arms. “You know you get lonely, right? Why are you going places without me?” He hummed and held her close. “I’m always here for you.”_

\------

_Yana laughed innocently as she talked with her group mates. They were making horrible chemistry puns that would make any science teacher cringe. “And then w-” She squeaked as once more a hand gripped her wrist and pulled her attention away from the group mid-sentence._

_“Zumi, let’s go somewhere else.” Iseri pouted._

_“But I have to do this project”_

_He quickly dropped the pout and pulled her off the chair by the wrist and began to walk out not caring for her protests._

\------

_“Zumi! How could you touch him? I said the only one who could do that is me.”_

_“I was giving him a high five!” Yana finally had enough. “You are like this all the time! You always ask me, what I'm doing, who I was with, what did we do and when did we do it. You are policing me! Are you my boyfriend or my captor? Because right now it seems like the latter!”_

\------

The longer she went on about her story the more distressed Yana’s teammates became. They could tell that her story was only going to get worse. As if sensing their discomfort Yana paused. “Uh, do you want me to stop?”

“We want to hear the rest.” Hanamaki answered quickly for the group. At first, he wasn’t so invested in the story. It was just something he was curious about and could listen to as he waited for the court to be cleaned. But now he needed to know what happened in the end.

\------

_Yana’s eyes widened as she saw them. As cliché as it was, she caught Iseri and her best friend having a very heated make out session in the storage room. “Iseri? Aki?” Her voice was small and full of disbelief, she didn’t want to be right._

_“Oops she caught us” Aki giggled._

_Yana bit her bottom lip, turned and ran away. Of course Iseri would prefer to date Aki. She is the Ace of the Girls’ Volleyball team and the beautiful daughter of a rich family._

_“Zumi! Zumi baby, wait! I can explain!” Iseri managed to chase Yana all the way out to the back entrance of the school by the empty bike racks._

_“No, I don’t want to hear it. I’ve been considering it for a while, but now I'm certain. I'm breaking up with you.”_

_Iseri tried to fight his case, “Baby, please.”_

_“No. You treat me like an object.” Yana wiped her tears away. She couldn’t cry now. “You never let me do anything, talk to anyone, you want to be beside me all the damn time. I felt like a prisoner rather than a girlfriend.” Yana paused to catch her breath. “Why don’t you go run back to Aki.”_

_Yana turned around and began to slowly walk off. It was finally over._

**_***_ **

_Iseri muttered under his breath quickly going through his options. “I never lived a moment of my life, before meeting you. You can't be separated from me! You are mine. You can’t be anything else." He grabbed her wrist and pinned them above her head against the cold brick wall._

_“NONONONONO GET AWAY FROM ME. LET GO OF ME ISERI! SOMEONE HELP!” Yana fought against his grip, kicking her legs around and using her nails to claw at Iseri’s hold. She prayed that someone, anyone, could hear the commotion and come to her aid._

_“Shh, shh, baby calm down. No need to scream.” He covered her mouth with his left hand. “You have to relax, or it’ll hurt. I don’t want to hurt you. Behave for me, Zumi.” He licked his lips. “Since you refuse to stay with me then I’ll just have to make it so you can’t leave me.”_

_Tears rolled down Yana’s face as she kept thrashing. She knew she wasn’t nearly strong enough to get out of his grasp and out from under his body. Yana opened her eyes and her blood ran ice cold upon seeing an almost inhuman, feral grin on his face. It was his eyes which scared her the most though. It was an unsightly obsession that was twisted into ‘love’._

**_***_ **

_Desperation, panic and absolute pure terror consumed her as she bit down hard on Iseri’s left hand. In that split second he uncovered her mouth Yana screamed for the two first people that came to mind. “Kuroo! Kenma!”_

_No sooner than she had cried out did her childhood friends appear. “Get your hands off her.” Kuroo growled. “I will beat the shit out of you if you don’t release her right now.” He had never felt so much rage in his life. His anger held all the power of a wildfire as waves of fury rolled off his skin. Despite how much he wanted to deck the guy in the face he knew he couldn’t._

_Iseri knew he wasn’t kidding. He slowly let go of Yana’s wrist and took a step back with his hands up in the air. Iseri didn’t feel like having his face bashed in today._

_Kenma held his arms open and Yana scrambled into them, her tears still leaving streaks on her face. “We got you, shortstop.” He held her trembling body in his arms trying to reassure her that it was all over now. Yana was usually someone with a big personality, but this time, she looked so fragile, as if just the slightest tap could break her. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her._

_“Did he manage to do anything?” Kuroo prodded, trying his best to keep the anger out of his voice._

_Yana sniffled. “N-no. You both managed to make it in time.”_

_Taking his chance, Iseri turned tail and ran, not bothering to say anything more. Kuroo and Kenma didn’t bother with the chase. They had more important matters to deal with. “Come on, let’s go home. Yeah?”_

_Yana nodded while her body came down from its fight or flight state. “I wanna play games with you and Kenma.”_

_Kuroo picked her up princess style and began the walk back to their houses. “We can do that.”_

_“And snacks?”_

_“I like that idea.” Kenma added as she walked beside the pair._

_“Movies?”_

_Kuroo and Kenma both agreed. They knew Yana was trying to keep her mind off everything that had just happened, it was an event none of the three would like to repeat again. It will take a while to get over what happened but the three of them knew that they would move forward together. They always had each other’s backs._

_Yana whimpered and hid her face in the crook of Kuroo’s neck. It didn’t take very long till she was once more a sobbing mess. “T-thank you s-so so much. I-I’m jus- Thank y-you” Her words were jumbled from her tears as a torrent of emotions came flooding out._

\-------

“So, uh. Yeah that’s what happened.” Yana ended her story and looked down at her feet with a small smile on her face. “If it wasn’t for Kenma and Kuroo, I wouldn’t be here today. I would be in a very different place.”

Oikawa was fuming by the time Yana was done. He wasn’t sure who ‘Kuroo’ and ‘Kenma’ were, but either way he would send some much deserved thank yous’ their way. The whole group was stunned silent.

It was a lot to take in. They had just learned that Yana had a toxic team, a demonic coach, a best friend who betrayed her, and an abusive ex-boyfriend who was now captain of the volleyball team.

“Why didn’t you report him for doing that?” Matsukawa furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to keep the topic vague enough so he didn’t have to say it outright but descriptive enough that she would know what he was asking.

“It was all swept under the rug. Aki is a rich girl who has connections with everyone. With enough money you can get away with anything.” Yana sighed.

“Guys, we are going to absolutely demolish that team.” Oikawa looked at his teammates with a pretty smile that didn’t suit his words. “When you spike it past the net. Be careful they don’t take it to the face.”


	31. Service Ace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shōsha match part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every so often, I like to go to the window, look up and smile for a satellite picture.
> 
> Enjoy

Once the court was cleaned Yahaba had sent a text to the volleyball club group chat telling them to come back. The other members of the team tensed when they saw the five students enter. While it was common to see Hajime irritated it was unusual to see Oikawa without his lively humor. It felt like the calm before the storm.

“#8, Iwaizumi.”

That voice was one that Yana knew far too well for her liking. She took a second to calm her nerves as she turned to face her old coach. “It’s Student Coach Iwaizumi.” Her voice was pleasant, but her gaze was hard. She didn’t need to answer to #8 anymore. She wasn’t a player and she definitely wasn’t a Shōsha player. “Is there anything you need Coach Omori?”

He scoffed. “Right, right. Looks like Iseri was right. I actually thought he was joking. You know how he is.” he flattened out the crinkles on his grey jacket. The fact that his hair and jacket were the same shade of grey wasn’t doing his appearance any favors. He scrunched up his face a little while staring Yana down. “You are wasting your potential here. The girls’ team misses you and is resulting in them failing all their shots.”

“With all due respect, I'm perfectly happy as I am now. As for the team missing me, I can assure you that they probably held a party when I left. You cannot blame me for the Shōsha girls’ drop in performance.” If Yana was being honest, she did feel just the slightest taste of gratification from knowing that the team was struggling without her. She didn’t want to sound too boastful, but she was most of the reason the team could continue their risky plays. If one of the members messed up their attack Yana would keep the ball in play. If there was a block rebound Yana saved it. It was her job as a Libero to cover for the team. “The team was too reliant on my covers.” Yana stood with her head high. After confronting Iseri, dealing with Coach Omori was easy. “If the team is too reliant on their Libero to save them then what do you think will happen when you take the Libero away?”

“Don’t get too full of yourself. A Libero is easily replaceable.” Coach Omori kept his composure as per usual. He might not have physically shown his bitterness, but his voice alone was enough to convey the message.

Yana scoffed. This time Yana flaunted the status her skills earned her. She wanted to sound as pretentious as she could. “Oh? Have fun trying to replace the Number Three Libero of the National Girls’ Division. I’m sure it’ll be so easy.” Yana began to walk away, “Tell whoever you get as a replacement, that the Sylph gives her kindest regards.”

Yana smirked in triumph as she took her place on the bench next to Aoba Johsai’s Coach Irihata. _Oh, that felt so good._ By the time Yana had just settled into place the team finished their warmup drills. If it wasn’t for the overwhelming pressure on their side of the court, she would have grumbled and whined a little. It was hard to believe the pressure came from four students alone.

“This was your previous school, any information on the players?” The coach asked as the team crowded around them.

“I can’t say I know what the team is like as a whole, but I do have some advice on some of the members. As you know Iseri is the captain and Middle Blocker of the team. He has a long reach and fast reflexes, but he isn’t exactly the best at jumping. Kechi is their setter, he is very unpredictable, he moves on impulse rather than strategy. I highly doubt even his own teammates know what’s going through that mind of his.”

Yana subtly pointed at an excessively generic looking player wearing #4. “He is the Ace. Think of him as a cookie cutter male protagonist in a fantasy world. He claims to have a ‘super-secret special skill’ but I've never seen it so I’m not sure what it is.”

She gestured to #5, “Just like his sister, Sawa is a Right Wing Spiker. But unlike Kechi, Sawa has incredible amounts of stamina but he tends to not give it his all unless he really gets into the game. I'm not really sure about the other members because they seem to all be first years.”

Yana examined the Shōsha team composition. They didn’t have a Libero. Nothing new there. But there was something about this current team that threw her off a little. Until she could properly guess what it was, all she could do was assume that the boys’ team had a similar strategy to the girls’ team.

Offence is the best defense.

Once Yana had finished her explaining, the coach gave his input on the team’s starting order. It was the same as when they had a match against Karasuno except that they put Oikawa in as a setter rather than Yahaba. 

Everyone huddled up in a tight circle. They were going to absolutely destroy Shōsha and its shitty captain along with it. “Go ahead and do the honors, Yana.” Matsukawa grinned.

This time Yana knew it was coming. Over the multitude of huddles she had participated in, she eventually got used to leading the cheer and much to Matsukawa’s dismay she actually didn’t mind it too much. It wasn’t quite enjoyable, but she didn’t hate the idea of starting the cheer anymore. She paused to clear her throat. “Seijoh! Rule the court!”

“YEAHHH!”

After the huddle broke and they began to walk on the court, Oikawa turned to face his teammates. “I believe in all of you.” The words were a promise but sounded like a threat, but each member knew that Oikawa didn’t say the phrase halfheartedly. “Now then, let’s win”

Everyone took their places; they were ready and fired up. Everyone wanted the first point. Whoever took the point could set the mood for the first portion of the match.

Shōsha had the starting serve. It was #13, one of the unknown first years in the club. #13 started several paces back, placed the ball to his forehead and waited for a second before jump serving.

The ball zoomed right over the backline players. All the Aoba Johsai students thought that the ball would go out of bounds but at the last second it dropped just before the end line.

The first point went to Shōsha Academy, service ace.

#13 got in position to serve once more. He did the same pre-serve ritual, #13 walked several paces back, placed the ball to his forehead, waited a second then served.

This time the ball was closer to the center of the court, Matsukawa prepared to receive the ball, if he was being honest it seemed like a free ball with how obvious the trajectory was. He swung his arms up for a dig. The ball suddenly curved midair and dropped just out of his reach.

The second point went to Shōsha Academy with another service ace.

There was a stunned silence with two service aces right off the bat. it wasn’t very good for Aoba Johsai’s morale. Despite their earlier bravado, Shōsha Academy wasn’t an easy opponent. Yana pursed her lips as she watched the serve. It had been a while since she had seen a jump topspin serve. People tended not to use it competitively because the trajectory was far more predictable than a floater which made it much easier for the defenders to receive.

The first time Yana had seen that serve when she was younger it frustrated her to no end. It didn’t seem like too challenging a serve to deal with, but the difficulty came from the power, speed but more importantly the topspin. If the server was precise enough, they could alter how much spin they wanted the ball to have.

“Oi, oi don’t make this match too easy for us. You should work on your team’s garbage receives” Iseri gave Oikawa a sardonic grin. As a middle blocker he enjoyed riling up the opposing team’s setter. He wasn’t breaking any rules but doing so would take a mental toll on the opponent. There was very little he enjoyed more than breaking a person down till all that was left was despair and panic.

#13 went to serve again but this time Matsukawa knew what was coming. It bounced up and straight at Oikawa. “Nice receive, Mattsun” The ball was in Oikawa’s possession for barely a fraction of a second before he released it.

With all his strength and anger Hajime slammed the ball down on Shōsha’s side of the court.

Oikawa gave Iseri a Cheshire’s smile. “You should work on your blocks. Our spikes are getting through too easily don’t you agree, Mr. Middle Blocker?”

\-------

Yana watched intently as the game continued with neither side gaining a considerable advantage. While Aoba Johsai gained points with spikes, Shōsha gained points through service aces. She had to admit, she wasn’t expecting the Shōsha team to specialize in serves. The team must have gone through some drastic changes. 

As much as she hated to say it, Coach Omori had a knack in finding the strengths of each player and polishing them. She was certain that Coach Omori had #13 practice serves almost exclusively. While #13 would excel at serves, every other aspect of his gameplay was left to suffer. _Seems like Coach Omori hasn't changed his teaching methods._


	32. Skyball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shōsha match part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is Mozart doing right now?  
> Decomposing!
> 
> Happy Reading

“Nice Makki” Oikawa easily received the ball from Hanamaki, it was a nice clean arc which made it perfect to set up to Kindaichi.

Iseri smirked and ran over to block Kindaichi, it was obvious that Oikawa chose him this time round.

Oikawa started a jump set but just before he released, Oikawa tipped his hand and executed a setter dump. Throughout the game Oikawa had noticed that Shōsha’s team was seriously lacking in defensive skills. Of course, that wasn’t the case with all the members, but once you pass the Middle Blockers the chance of the other players keeping the ball in play is almost nonexistent. “Ya~hoo! Mr. Middle Blocker! The ball is over here” Oikawa gave his signature playful smile and a wave. It was match point for Aoba Johsai.

Coach Omori put his hands together in a ‘T’. He needed to stop Aoba Johsai’s momentum. They had scored five consecutive points and that was unacceptable.

“Shōsha Academy, timeout”

Iseri practically growled as he stared Oikawa down with the promise of violence. _How dare this little shit mock me._ Iseri stomped back to the team bench for the timeout.

\---------

Yana looked at the teams then at the whiteboard she was holding. Yana moved around the teal magnets to change the order of the numbers. “Hnm.” She looked up at their team. “Oikawa.”

“Yes Yana-chan?” He chirped cheerfully.

“On a scale of one to ten, how willing are you to stay at the net with Iseri?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course it’ll be one hundred.”

Yana nodded as she once more shuffled the magnets. “I'm thinking we do this from now on.”

The team and Head Coach examined the board as she explained her idea. I want Iseri to be on the receiving end of Oikawa’s serves. From what I've noticed, his receiving skills haven’t improved since we were first years. And knowing Coach Omori, he probably ignored that fact and instead had Iseri practice blocks.”

There was a brief silence. “You can be really mean at times you know that?”

“What, why?! Not at all.” She gaped. “I'm just saying that since Oikawa is by far our strongest server and Iseri is arguably one of their weaker receivers, it works out. I just needed to make sure Oikawa was ok with being next to Iseri while at the net. He can be quite mentally taxing at times.”

“Aw, you do care.” Oikawa smirked yet his eyes held only the flicker of humor.

“Why, yes I do.” She deadpanned without the slightest hint of hesitation or a faint trace of a lie. Throughout the match the suffocating pressure didn’t let up. At this point Yana was sure that even the Shōsha team felt it. 

That single sentence threw Oikawa through a loop. He expected her to roll her eyes or maybe even deny it, but definitely not reply to it so earnestly. There were few people in the world who could have him temporarily speechless and Yana just so happened to be one of them. Oikawa clicked his tongue internally as he glanced at Iseri from afar. How could he do something so cruel? And to Yana of all people. _If it were me. I’d never do that or even let anyone have the chance to do something as disgusting as that._ Oikawa looked back towards his team, the determination to win now higher than ever.

\---------

Coach Omori pinched the bridge of his nose. “We are two points behind, and they have scored five consecutive hits.” He glared at his team. They may not be as good as the girls’ team but that didn’t mean they could just play like trash whenever they felt like it. They were representing Shōsha Academy. No way in hell were they losing to some unknown country school. “You are all slacking. I allowed you to have this match because you said you would be able to beat them no problem. Now look, you are embarrassing the school, you are embarrassing yourselves and you are embarrassing me.”

“Yes coach.” Iseri bit back his snarky remarks. Although he hated what Coach Omori was saying, he wasn’t wrong. Shōsha needed to get a grip. If their school won, then maybe he could convince Yana to come back to Shōsha, there was no way he was going to let her be taken away by some country boy trash.

“If you lose here, your actions will have consequences.”

“Yes Coach”

“We aren’t going to change our set up or strategy, got it?" _It’s worked every other time so of course it will work this time too. I have polished their talents, they cannot lose._

“Yes Coach!”

\-------

The sound of the whistle interrupted both teams. Timeout seemed to end much sooner than usual. Both teams stood at the net ready for the game, “Ya~hoo! Unpleasant to see you again.”

Iseri just growled in response.

“Wow, no need to act like a rabid dog, I was just saying hi.” Oikawa looked to the ball, “Games about to start, you should probably stop growling.”

\--------

Kindaichi was the first to touch the ball after the serve. This time the serve was a rather underwhelming jump serve. Kindaichi was used to serves like Oikawa’s so when #12 attempted to do it, he had assumed it would be something similar to those serves. He was wrong. If anything, it felt like a pale imitation. “Oikawa!”

The ball’s arc was a little rough, but it was still decent enough that he didn’t have to run around for the ball. Iwaizumi was vanguard and prepared himself to attack. He crouched, waited a second and jumped.

Oikawa was about to toss it before his petty little heart stopped him. Oikawa jumped and mid throw, changed his position to a dump and dropped the ball on the other side of the net again. No one really expected the setter to dump twice in a row, doing so would be overly bold and doesn’t make for a very intimidating attack.

True to Yana’s observations, Shōsha’s team didn’t have any good receivers. The ball fell in seemingly slow motion and landed dead center on Iseri’s head. The Shōsha players tried to dive for the ball as it bounced off him, but they were too slow. It landed with a smack that resounded through the gym seemingly louder than a spike. It was a small tap, but the intention spoke volumes.

_That was better than I thought._ Oikawa put on his signature playful smile and knocked the top of his head lightly with his knuckles. “Oopsie.”

Iseri was seething. This frivolous joke of a captain was mocking him. “I'm better than you. Don't look at me like that. I could beat you in my sleep, in fact, I think I did last night... twice.” He growled; his voice was low enough that only the two of them could hear. “How do I know I'm superior? I go to a better school. I have better hair. I have more charm and I play volleyball far better than you ever could. You are trash.”

“I've been called worse by better.” Oikawa deadpanned; he couldn’t care less for whatever Iseri had to say. Oikawa wasn’t going to stoop down to his level.

Before Iseri could say anything more, the referee announced the results “First set end. Winner, Aoba Johsai.”

\---------

The second set passed by in a similar fashion to the first. Shōsha refused to change their team composition and from the looks of things they didn’t even change their strategy. It had become an almost ridiculously one-sided match.

The referee blew his whistle and gestured to Shōsha’s side of the net. “Shōsha Academy, member change.”

\-------

Yana sat up straight as she watched #14 start his pre-serve routine. He had tied his overly long fringe up on his head with a small pink marble hair bubble to reveal a rather strong sunglasses tan. If his tan was any indication, he seemed like the kind of person who spent his life soaking in as much sun as he could.

#14 tapped the ball a few times then positioned himself parallel to the backline. Yana stood up abruptly, looked at the ceiling then back down at the Shōsha student. She knew exactly what serve he was planning to do. It was her favorite serve to do -when she was given the chance that is.

“Skyball.” She mumbled. It was a serve used almost exclusively in beach volleyball. There wasn’t any rule against using it for indoor volleyball, but it was highly dependent on the ceiling height of the gym. The ceiling of the national’s stadium was ridiculously high and had glaring stage lights which greatly assisted the effectiveness of the serve.

The aim of the serve was to go up and over the net as high as possible. It sounds like it would be a free ball to receive but trying to pinpoint exactly where the ball was with the sun -or in this case, light- behind it, was not exactly easy to do when it was coming down hard, not too different from a meteor, if it was going vertically down, and it wasn’t on fire and it was a volleyball.

Unfortunately for #14 the roof didn’t seem quite ideal, but if he aimed it carefully, he could probably have a decent attempt at the skyball.

\-----

The Shōsha player took a breath and held the ball out in front of him and tossed it up just the slightest amount to allow his arm to make a full swing upwards. There was a solid thump on the ball as it sailed towards the ceiling.


	33. Accidents Happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Results of the match

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confucius says 'love one another'. If it doesn't work, just interchange the last two words. 
> 
> Enjoy~

The ball came down with a harsh bang. Another service ace. The score was now twenty-one to seventeen, with Aoba Johsai in the lead. It took two more points before the Aoba Johsai students were able to return the serve. Unfortunately, it was Oikawa who touched the ball first. Which meant he couldn’t set it for the other members. “Watachi!”

The ball cleared the length of the court to Watari. He took a few steps forward to have almost a running start. As soon as he was at the edge of the back-row line, he crouched down slightly and jumped sideways with the intent to set the ball. As long as he could set the ball while mid air it wouldn't be considered a foul. Watari held his breath, the split second he was in the air he set the ball over to Kunimi.

The set was nothing special nor was it perfect, but it was good enough for Kunimi to hit with no issues. Despite Iseri and another Shōsha player going for the block, Kunimi had already spiked the ball past them.

The point went to Aoba Johsai and the score was now twenty-two to seventeen and it was Oikawa’s turn to serve. Oikawa spun the ball a few times and murmured something. Yana couldn’t make out what Oikawa was trying to say but it seemed like a new addition to his preserve ritual.

Oikawa planned to go right for Iseri. Oikawa pointed at Iseri. _If you’re going to hit something, hit it till it breaks. Let’s see if I can break you._ Oikawa took a few paces, tossed up the ball and leapt. His form was perfect as he slammed the ball down across the court. The ball hurtled into Iseri’s forearms then ricocheted off and onto the back wall. “You guys aren’t the only ones who can do service aces.” Okiawa chirped, pleased with himself.

\----------

Iseri’s face scrunched up like he had tasted something bitter. There was no way. He was the best receiver in the team. Scratch that, he was the best player in the team. How could he be the best if he couldn’t even return one measly serve from some country bumpkin captain?

Iseri got into position again as Oikawa began his serve. He watched as Oikawa prepared to serve again. Oikawa picked up the ball and once more followed the same sequence. A few paces forward, the ball tossed in the air, an obnoxiously perfect textbook jump and an impossibly hard swing.

Iseri grit his teeth and glared at his forearms as the ball blew his arms back again. “Fuck…” He looked at the scoreboard. It was twenty-four to seventeen. They weren’t going to lose because of a service ace. They couldn’t lose. Since the Shōsha team shuffled their starting order in the beginning of the year they hadn’t lost a match. _No way are we losing now._

\-------

Oikawa followed the same pattern but this time his serve was slightly off and he had hit the ball in a different place than usual. Regardless, the ball still flew to Iseri. Iseri was prepared and ready to go until #4 -the ace- shoved his body to the side. “Dude!”

#4 had intercepted the serve and received it flawlessly. He turned to Iseri and gave him a half hearted ‘sorry’ with the ‘my body moved on its own’ excuse. Yana wasn’t expecting someone to steal the ball from Iseri, that’s just not something people do. It did work in their favor however.

\-------

The ball came sailing over to Aoba Johsai’s side of the court. “Chance ball~” Oikawa hummed happily.

Hajime rolled his shoulders back as the ball started its descent. It was the match point of the second set. His last chance. “Set it to me.” Hajime didn’t even bother keeping his demand a secret. He said it loud and clear.

“Have fun Iwa-chan!” No later than Oikawa’s fingers connected to the ball did he toss it to the already jumping Hajime.

Hajime pulled his hand back. The Shōsha members tried to set up a three-man block. Hajime spiked the ball with a thunderous slap that effortlessly broke through the block and landed dead center on Iseri’s face.

“Set end. Winner, Aoba Johsai High School.”

The winners cheered, not paying any mind to Iseri’s bleeding nose. Was it broken? Probably not. Which was a shame. They couldn’t go off the court yet so instead, Hanamaki, Matsukawa, Hajime and Oikawa gave Yana a thumbs up and a cocky smile. “We won!”

_I never doubted otherwise_. Yana just nodded as she watched the teams line up for the handshake.

“Looks like you aren’t superior. Afterall, huh?” Oikawa held out his hand to shake.

Iseri looked livid as he stared at Oikawa’s hand. Just as he was about to grab hold of it, Oikawa moved his hand away. “Sorry, my hand got tired waiting.” Oikawa believed that it was never too late to be petty. Oikawa smiled innocently. The coaches and the referees didn’t see what happened, so it was all good.

“Hey you S-”

Oikawa interrupted Iseri’s barking, “Stop sniveling and crawl back to whatever dumpster you sleep in.”

\-------

Both teams were dismissed and allowed back to their respective benches. “Whaaa~ Yana-chan, did you see how much cooler Aoba Johsai is?” Oikawa practically skipped towards her while the others trailed behind.

“Oh yes, definitely. Very cool. Though I think Hajime was the coolest. That last spike was pretty epic.” Yana teased.

“Hell yeah, it was.” Hajime agreed wholeheartedly.

Matsukawa ruffled Yana’s hair making it even more of a mess than usual. “We got that revenge for you.”

Yana smiled and looked away to try to hide her expression. She did find it rather touching that they would put in some effort for her. Perhaps she would actually enjoy her last year of high school. _Coming to Aoba Johsai was a good choice._

“I saw that!” Hanamaki smirked. Don’t think you can deny it. I wasn’t the only one who saw it.

“Aren’t I as cool as Iwa-chan? I did cool things too.” Oikawa lamented, as he gave Yana the best puppy dog eyes he could muster.

“Pfft.” Yana huffed from Oikawa’s attempt at puppy dog eyes. “Yes, you were super cool too.”

Oikawa slung an arm over her and pulled her into a hug. “You mean the coolest. But if you don’t want to say it that’s alright, I already know.”

Yana squirmed as her face was pushed into Oikawa’s chest. “Eww, you smell like sweat. Let goooo, I don’t want to shower again.” she whined. 

Hanamaki, Matsukawa, Hajime and Oikawa made eye contact and they all did something that was between a hug and a huddle. It was a little awkward with four tall people and one short person, but the thought was there.

“You are all terrible.” Yana huffed as she gave up struggling and just accepted the sweaty hugs.

“But, can we talk about how perfect that face shot was?” It wasn’t long before the five students cracked up in laughter. It was probably the most gratifying thing that Yana had the pleasure of watching. The way it hit at just the right angle. The spike to the face didn’t really accomplish much for long term’s sake, but that didn’t make it any less amazing.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----ON THE WAY HOME-----**

Hajime, Oikawa and Yana had left right after clean up and the debrief. Apart from the Coach berating Oikawa and Hajime for using the ball as a weapon against Iseri, the feedback was quite positive. Apparently, the Head Coach knew that both ‘accidents’ were not actually ‘accidents.’

The three continued their idle chatter. “You know what? I don’t think I've seen Coach Omori that angry since the girls’ club got third place.” Yana tilted her head as she shuffled through her memories. "Hm. Yeah.”

“You mean so angry his face looked like a tomato?” Oikawa snickered.

Yana nodded. “Yep. The boys are probably getting chewed out right now.” She shrugged. “Sucks to be them.” Yana had been on the receiving end of angry Coach Omori more than enough times to last her a lifetime, she knew firsthand how scary he could be. While Yana did feel for them, she wasn’t really bothered by it.

“That was our last practice match” Hajime spoke up in a rather somber tone which interrupted the lighthearted mood. Oikawa and Yana both knew what Hajime was leading up to. In a few days the Interhigh Tournament would begin. It was a place all three students had been to before, but now that they were third years it was their last Interhigh Tournament.

Though Yana wasn’t a player anymore she felt considerably more nervous as a student coach, she wasn’t sure if her team would win. Not from lack of faith, but because she wasn’t sure who Aoba Johsai was up against. Back when she was a player it was just a given that Shōsha would win, they had the better players and made good use of the data from the previous years. Yana had no data to draw on, so it felt like she was going in blind.

“I want you guys to win.”

“You mean, you want us…” Oikawa gestured to the three of them “…to win. You're part of this team too.”

Yana wasn’t aware she had spoken the last part out loud but decided to roll with it. “I want us to win.”

Oikawa nodded and made the ‘ok’ sign with both hands, “Perfect.”


	34. Long-lost Twin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surprise date!  
> Fun fluff, who doesn't love fluff?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One bird cant make a pun, but Toucan!
> 
> Happy reading!

**_Trashykawa:_ ** _Yana! Let’s go out today! :D_

 **_Yana:_ ** _???_

 **_Yana:_ ** _Why though?_

 **_Yana:_ ** _What would we even do?_

 **_Trashykawa:_ ** _That’s a surprise ;9_

 **_Yana:_ ** _Sounds like you already have something in mind._

 **_Trashkawa:_ ** _Yep!_

 **_Trashykawa:_ ** _I’ll be there in 20mins!_

 **_Yana:_ ** _I didn’t even agree yet!_

 **_Trashykawa:_ ** _the keyword there is ‘yet’ :D_

 **_Trashykawa:_ ** _It’ll be fun! You don’t need to bring or wear anything specific. No heels though <3_

 **_Trashykawa:_ ** _See you in 20._

 **_Yana:_ ** _Ugh_

Yana grumbled as she rolled out of bed. She didn’t want to spend her free time doing anything other than sleeping yet she found herself moving to get ready anyway, she -like Hajime- had fallen prey to Oikawa’s spontaneous ideas. “Twenty minutes isn’t enough” She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and started to get ready. Yana wasn’t sure what she was going to wear yet, but she would cross that bridge when she got to it.

She had just finished drying her hair after getting out of the shower before the doorbell rang. Yana looked at the clock. _It’s already been twenty minutes?!_ She pulled out her phone to text Oikawa to give her a hot second until she heard the sound of the door being opened.

\--------

“Oh, good morning. I'm here for Yana-chan. I’m Oikawa Tooru, pleasure to meet you.”

“I'm Yana’s mother, please come inside and I can get you something to drink.” She led Oikawa into the cosy living room and offered him a seat on the white L-shaped sofa. The hot chocolate colored walls promoted a more relaxed aura when paired with the slightly off-white accents. “I was wondering why I heard her move around so early. Who would have thought that Yana would already have a date? Well, I suppose it has already been a few months. Water? Juice? Tea? Coffee?”

“No, I’m alright, thank you for the offer though.”

The sound of hurried footsteps stampeded down the stairs. “Ah that must be Yana.”

Not even a few seconds later, Yana burst into the living room. “Sorry I took a while.” She was a little breathless from running around and trying to find out what to wear. Since Oikawa was vague as always, she had trouble choosing. “Sorry I took a while. You were a little abrupt” Yana was wearing a navy-blue pleated skirt that reached up to high waist and down to mid-thigh level. Most of her shirts were in the wash so she decided to wear one of her many long-sleeved sweaters. The base color of the sweater was white which had a single thick stripe going through the chest and arm area that matched the color of her skirt. Parallel to the navy stripe was a thin red stripe not unlike what Oikawa was wearing during their last date. She fidget with her twisted ponytail awkwardly as neither of her audience responded. “Uh, let’s go?”

Oikawa was pleasantly surprised. He noticed that her sweater looked really similar to the t-shirt shirt he wore last time. While her ensemble was a completely different color scheme and style from her last date outfit, it looked equally good on her. It took him a few seconds before he responded. “Sure. I'm ready.” Oikawa stood up as if to prove his point.

Yana’s mother smiled coyly at her daughter. “You two have matching outfits! That’s so cute” she gushed. “I remember when I was your age. Oh, your father and I would match all the time.” Yana’s mother giggled fondly.

Yana and Oikawa looked at each other a little confused before they realized what Yana’s mother was gushing over. Oikawa was wearing a navy-blue letterman jacket with white sleeves and red accent stripes. On the back there was a giant green alien head patch with the words ‘Alien Hunter’ coiled around it. His dark gray skinny jeans were rolled up to his ankles showing off his black converses with another single green alien head print to match his jacket.

Yana should have had more questions about his outfit, but she had learned -from Hajime- that the best thing to do was roll with it. _Of course, Oikawa had a jacket like that. Of course, he loved it. And of course, he would wear it when we went out together._

While that itself was shocking, the most surprising thing of all were the colors. All three colors of their outfits matched. Navy blue, red and white. “We do match.” She wasn’t sure what to say. She really didn’t want to go back upstairs and change but they weren’t going for the couple look because they weren’t a couple. “I can change if you wa-”

“No!” Oikawa cleared his throat. “You don’t need to change. You already look super cute and I really like matching outfits. It’s really cute. I-If you are comfortable that is, you can change if you want. I was just saying. We don’t need to match or anything…” His sentence started strong then slowly devolved to a trailing ramble. Oikawa crouched down and covered his face. “Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting this.” Oikawa thought he was pretty slick and ‘cool’, but moments like these made him think differently. A couple outfit shouldn’t make him this flustered.

Watching Oikawa blush and crouch down embarrassed caused Yana’s face to heat up so she was almost as red as he was. Yana’s mother gave a thumbs up to Yana while Oikawa was still crouched down which only caused Yana’s ears to turn red too.

Yana struggled to stay composed. “We can go like this.” Her voice came out smaller than she liked so she cleared her throat. “Come on, I didn’t wake up this early to stay at home. You said you already had a place.”

“Oh my! don’t let me keep you behind.” Yana’s mother gasped and ushered both Yana and Oikawa out the door. “Enjoy your date!”

The pair looked at the closed door then at each other. They were whisked out of the house faster than they thought possible. “So where to?”

“I said it was a surprise.” Oikawa whined playfully. Now that the two had regained their composure it was much easier to hold a conversation. “Also, our matching outfits are pretty great. It must be fate that we chose the same color. What if we are soulmates?!”

“It’s a coincidence” Yana corrected. If she was still the doe eyed flowery girl, then she would have agreed wholeheartedly but thanks to Iseri that wasn’t the case anymore. “This is a very common color combination. Even America’s flag features these colors. Not to mention, the idea of soulmates is very cute and all, but love doesn’t really work like that. I don’t think that everyone in the world has another person who is perfect for them. That’s impossible. If only a select few people had soulmates, then wouldn’t that be cruel? What if you never meet your soulmate?”

“Wow, breaking my heart like that. One day I’ll change your mind.” Oikawa puffed his chest up confidently.

**_-_ ** **\----AT THE DATE LOCATION-----**

“Tada! We are going to an aquarium~”

Yana looked at the huge building. It looked like it would be a cut out from an ‘Architects Today’ magazine. Everything was geometric, a flat roof, a door as wide as it was tall and even long slanted beams protruding from the floor and up along the side of the concrete building. the main body of the building was made of a blue tinted glass probably to simulate the surface of the water. “I didn’t know we had an aquarium.”

He looked at the sea of people by the doors. “It’s pretty new actually.”

“That’s actually pretty cool. But how much is the entrance fee?”

Oikawa once more looked at Yana triumphantly. “I won two tickets in one of those lottery games. First place winner right here.” He carefully took Yana’s right hand and looked at her sheepishly. “Hands are ok. Right?”

Yana was startled as Oikawa took her hand. She was tempted to pull away at first but decided otherwise. Oikawa had been so careful in only touching her hand and not her wrist, and if that wasn’t enough, he had asked Yana for confirmation that she was comfortable with it. “Yeah, hands are good” She managed to force out, her voice thankfully not doing anything weird.

Oikawa was elated then steered her through the crowd and to the ticket gate. It wasn’t long before they had already arrived at the first exhibit. Just as the outside of the building was beautiful, the interior matched. Of course, that wasn’t the most impressive part. What was Inside of the large tanks were the main attraction.

Oikawa released her hand a little reluctantly once they were no longer in an overly crowded area. They had no reason to keep holding on.

While Yana was a tad bit disappointed that he let go she didn’t say anything about it. He wouldn’t let her live it down if she told him. She walked over to the tank with Oikawa in tow. Inside were a plethora of different kinds of fish and coral. The coral seemed like an exuberant carnival, the delicate scales of the fish shimmered in their own vibrant shades and patterns blending in with the place they called home.

Yana flittered from tank to tank before she looked at the list of fish and laughed. “Oh my god, Oikawa look. “She pointed at the Zacco platypus – better known as the pale chub or perhaps better so, the Oikawa fish. “It’s you” She could barely keep her laughter under control as she showed him. The fish had off grey fins and a silvery body with at least ten vertical stripes of blue.

“Oh yeah? If that’s me then this is Iwa-chan” he grinned as he pointed at the fish in a different tank.

Yana’s amusement started as silent trembling before it became full blown hilarity, the ‘Iwa fish’ was her breaking point. “An inflated pufferfish. Oh god. I'm dying” She tried to hold back, she really did but she couldn’t help herself.

It wasn’t long before Oikawa found himself laughing alongside her, mirth dancing in his mocha colored eyes. “Isn’t it perfect? You have to admit. The spikes, the constant angry face, it’s a perfect match.”

Once Yana had finally stopped laughing, she pulled out her phone and took a picture of the fish and sent it to Hajime. Oikawa too sent a picture to Hajime but this time with the caption ‘found your long-lost twin.’

\---------

Hajime got two pings on his phone both of them only a few seconds apart from each other. “Those two…” He glared at the message as the picture of the fish glared back at him. He considered replying but judging from the timing and appearance of the photos, Oikawa and Yana were both on a date or at least some kind of outing together. Hajime decided against texting either of them, but once they got back, he would definitely have some words with Oikawa and Yana. Hajime refused to believe he looked like a pufferfish. 


	35. Underwater Wonderland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more Date fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What musical instrument is found in the bathroom?  
> A tuba toothpaste!
> 
> Enjoy!

The aquarium was everything Yana had hoped it’d be. It was worth waking up early on a weekend.

“Yana-chan, it’s time for lunch. They have a food court and seating area this way.” Oikawa gestured to the left path.

Truthfully, Yana had been hungry for the past hour, but she didn’t say anything because she was too busy flitting between tanks and weaving through people. “Sounds like a good plan” Yana walked towards the destination next to Oikawa, not missing how he slowed down his steps to match her pace.

“Is there anything in particular you want to eat?” Oikawa asked as the pair perused through the large selection of food. “Those fries look good, I’m not yet hungry enough for a full meal.”

“They do look good actually.” Yana looked through all the options available for sale. “Are you ok with sharing food?”

Oikawa gasped overdramatically. “Sharing food with my beautiful Volleybabe? How could I resist?”

There was a pause that seemed to last far too long.

“That was absolutely horrible. Please never call me or anyone else for that matter, anything remotely similar to Volleybabe” Yana groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Konpeito-chan?”

Yana raised an eyebrow. “Like the candy? What was wrong with Yana-chan? Or maybe just Yana, like what everyone else calls me?”

“But Konpeito-chan sounds cuter. It makes you special.” Oikawa mumbled a little disheartened.

 _Well, I can’t just refuse now, can I?_ Yana internally groaned. “Fine. You can call me that. Just don’t overuse it.” She caved far too easily for her to deny that somewhere she liked the name. Soon it was time for them to order. “So, you cool with sharing though, right? If not that’s ok too.”

“Yep. Totally ok with sharing the fries.” He gave her the ‘ok’ symbol with his hands and a boyish grin, which caused Yana to have some very unwanted butterflies. Yana had noticed that she had grown to be quite fond of the volleyball obsessed boy and she hated it. She could take a pretty good guess at what the feeling was, but surely that was impossible. _Who would be into their cousin’s hot best friend? Not me, no sir._

\------

Yana and Oikawa had found a nice two-person table on the edge of the food court seating area. They sat opposite each other, placed the order of fries in the middle then began to eat and chat about what they would do next. They had gone through the exhibits pretty fast and were probably three quarters of the way finished. There were only a few attractions left that they hadn’t yet visited. With both Yana and Oikawa picking at the fries their food was finished rather quickly. The pair stood up and just before they were going to leave the area Yana gently tugged on Oikawa's sleeve for his attention. “Can we go there?” She pointed at a small white photo booth with a long seafoam colored curtain.

“The Purikura?” 

“Please?” Yana’s eyes sparkled as she hoped for the best. A photo by yourself in a booth is never as fun as if you had a friend or two to bring along. There was just something so novel about having a photo printed from the kiosk.

“Sounds like fun~” We can do that.” He allowed Yana to pull him along to the booth.

\------

The pair had somehow managed to squeeze into the small space, there wasn’t a seat inside this particular booth which Yana was grateful for, it would be a lot harder for the two of them to navigate around one another if there was a chair in the way. They had chosen the option for five photos in a row with a one second interval in between each one.

Once they had chosen their background, they started with the photos. The first photo was just a normal smiling picture. Oikawa had put up his usual peace sign, but nothing too extreme.

The second photo was a little more on the silly side. Oikawa had stuck his tongue out, made double peace signs and used one of them to cover Yana’s face from the camera.

The third photo caught Oikawa mid laugh and Yana puffing up one cheek as he gave her bunny ears with his fingers.

By the fourth photo Oikawa had a plan. Oikawa gave Yana a surprise kiss on the cheek. If he was going to make a bold move, he needed it to be a strong one. “Thank you for coming with me, Konpeito-chan. You always seem to brighten my day.”

Yana blushed and squeaked as Oikawa kissed her left cheek. She was not ready for that. Yana knew how frivolous he was so perhaps for him it wasn’t that big a deal. _He probably didn’t mean anything by it._ She scolded herself internally. _I don’t have feelings for him. That’d be crazy! Completely ridiculous._

The fifth and final photo was a blur of blue, red and white.

\--------

“Oikawa! Wh-What was that for!?” Yana blushed as they stayed inside the booth a moment longer, the light from the booth illuminating a faint ring of gold inside her iris.

“It’s just like I said earlier.” He grinned and exited the booth. “Now, lets go. We have a few more exhibits to see, right?” Oikawa managed to salvage as much composure as he could while he tried to play himself off as ‘cool’. His internal thoughts did not match his exterior. _What have I done? What if she is put off by it? Was I too forward? What if she had a boyfriend?! I don’t think so considering she didn’t say anything. But then, what if she thinks that was just a friend thing? Surely, she won’t. Oh, what if she avoids me and doesn’t want to see me at all!?! She doesn’t seem to be taking it too bad though…hopefully._ There was something about Yana that sometimes had him at a loss. He definitely knew what it was.

Yana wasn’t sure how to react at first. She was shocked, but it wasn’t an unpleasant shock. The tips of her ears turned bright red, not missed by Oikawa _. What if it was a friend thing? He seemed like the kind of guy who would do something like that. But then again, maybe not._ The mere thought alone of Oikawa using kisses as greetings made her want to cringe. She quickly dismissed those thoughts. _He may be flirtatious, smug, and annoyingly flippant, but Oikawa wouldn’t do that._

A few large groups of people started filling the area. There seemed to be some tours, perhaps school excursions or maybe a scout group. The pair started weaving through the plethora of people barely able to keep together. Yana gently held onto the sleeve of Oikawa’s jacket so as to not be separated.

\------

It had only taken a little under two hours to finish the rest of the tanks. “Let’s see, all that’s left is the tunnel to the souvenir shop." Oikawa folded up the little paper map and placed it in his back pocket. "There was a surprisingly large amount of fish to see and things to do.” 

As they rounded the corner both Oikawa and Yana gasped. It was a long underwater tunnel that went right through the largest reef tank. Everything from stingrays, to sharks to fish swam gracefully through the vibrant coral. Yana’s face lit up in wonder and childlike curiosity as she pointed to a shoal of fish by the edge of the coral reef. Oikawa was just as amazed as she was. It was like an underwater wonderland. The smiles never left their faces as they slowly walked through the tunnel.

“E-Excuse me!”

The pair turned around to the unknown voice. “Yes?” The owner was dressed in a white polo with a silhouette of a shark printed on the front. The shirt was tucked into his black pants and had a professional camera in his hands. _The staff uniform,_ the pair realized.

“Sorry for bothering you on your date, I'm Tajima Hachiro. I take photos for the marketing team that they then use for the website and brochure.” Taijima held up this camera so Yana and Oikawa could see the preview screen. “I saw you both and couldn’t help but take a photo, you both looked so happy and the matching outfits were just the perfect touch. Ah, I'm very sorry I took a photo without your permission, but I was wondering if you would let us use the photo.” He showed the pair the photo he had taken. “If you don’t want us to use them, I can delete it right away.”

It was a beautiful candid photo of the pair. Not to exaggerate but it was the kind of scene that seemed like it belonged in a cheesy romance movie. In the photo, the pair were standing side by side while Yana pointed at a particularly pretty fish in awe. Oikawa was mid laugh in the photo, as if he were laughing at a joke that only the pair were privy to. The scene was sweet and left you feeling a little fuzzy inside. The photo radiated happiness that was infectious.

“This is a really good photo.” Oikawa looked back up at the photographer. “It’s alright with me if you use this picture.” Oikawa looked to Yana who quickly agreed. “Yana said it was alright too.”

“Really?! Thank you so much! Here, take this card.” The photographer was elated as he handed the pair a card with a scan code on it. “Give this to one of the staff members in the store, they will print the photo for you both! You can ask them for two if you’d like. What are your names? I 'd like to credit you on the photo.”

“I'm Iwaizumi Yana.”

“And I'm Oikawa Tooru.”

Taijima wrote the names down and thanked the pair one more time before they parted ways.

“We look so cute together don’t you think?” Oikawa grinned as they walked.

“Only because of the matching outfits.” Even Yana couldn’t deny that he was right. _Goddamnit._

\---------

Taijima watched as the pair walked away once more side by side, the blue light of the tunnel almost made them seem like silhouettes. Before he knew it Taijima took one last photo of the pair before they exited the tunnel. He then scanned the card so both Yana and Oikawa could print it along with the first photo.

\----------

The date had ended smoothly and both Yana and Oikawa thoroughly enjoyed the day. The pair walked back home as they talked about the events of the date. It was an almost perfect day out. The only mishap being that once Hajime spotted the two of them, they had to make a quick escape. Yana bolted into her house while Oikawa cackled all the way back home.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY AFTER PRACTICE-----**

“Yana! Oikawa!” Hanamaki called the pair over.

“We saw something very interesting.” Matsukawa smirked and pulled up the website of the aquarium that Yana and Oikawa visited the day before. “As soon as you open the site this picture shows up. I wasn’t sure who they were at first since it only showed their backs.” Matsukawa swiped to the ‘Exhibits’ tab. “Then I saw this picture.”

It was the first picture that Taijima took of the two when they were looking at the fish. “We look great right?!” Oikawa beamed.

Hajime and the rest of the team slowly gravitated around the four so they could see the photos too. Hajime wasn’t sure what to say. His childhood friend and his cousin were the advertisement photos for the aquarium. It wasn’t a bad picture, that’s for sure. “How? Why? What?”

“Aren’t those matching outfits?” Kunimi added. He wanted to see how much he could stir the pot.

“You were on a date?! With couple outfits?!” Kindaichi gasped shocked. 

Everyone wanted to ask if Yana and Oikawa had started dating because no one was really quite sure. They practically spent a ridiculous amount of time with each other because of the club. Not only that, but apparently they were in the same class and were group mates for the senior project. There was some very obvious pining that all the members of the team had noticed.

“Why were you and Hanamaki looking up the aquarium?” Yana deflected the attention to the Matsukawa, Hanamaki pair.

Matsukawa shrugged while Hanamaki looked away. “No reason…”

The rest of the team understood. _Ah, them too._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally the date was supposed to be one chapter but it was too long so i split it into two, i almost had to split it into three but i just made this chapter a little longer.


	36. We Meet Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Start of the Interhigh!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you hear about the hungry clock?  
> It went back four seconds.
> 
> Happy reading!

Yana pulled her jacket in closer to herself, the air conditioner temperature inside was something close to freezing. She knew that when playing it would be much appreciated, but as a non-player, her body was not pleased by it. “Oh wow, the vibe is totally different from Tokyo.” Yana gaped. She was used to it being a lot more intense. That and she did find it nice that when Aoba Johsai entered there weren’t any extreme reactions to their presence.

“I figured it would be.” Coach Irihata chuckled at Yana’s comment and led the team inside. “Now then, while we are waiting for our first match, make sure you take a good long look at it one more time.”

Yana was confused for a moment as she tried to guess what ‘it’ was. Thankfully it didn’t take long. “The super-fast quick attack patented by Karasuno?”

“Right.” The Coach froze suddenly and turned around to the team. He had expected to hear a voice pipe up and complain about the Karasuno duo, but there was nothing. “Where is Oikawa?” Coach Irihata questioned.

Yahaba chuckled nervously, he really didn’t want to answer but everyone else had already looked away. “Erm. Well, some girls from another school stopped him outside…” Yahaba trailed off.

There was a stunned silence. Hajime scrunched up his face. Oikawa could be irritating at times but even more so when he tried to please his fangirls. Yana on the other hand, felt a little sting in her chest and frowned at the sensation. It was unpleasant.

It was the Coach who broke the silence and pulled Yana out of her thoughts. “Iwaizumis’…”

“On it” Both Iwaizumis’ responded at the same time but with very different tones.

Hajime was utterly annoyed and had no patience to deal with Shittykawa’s antics.

Yana just sighed deeply like she was questioning her life choices. But like Hajime she too had no patience to deal with Oikawa’s disappearing acts.

\--------

“Whaa~ I'm so happy you are all here to support me.” Oikawa had his playboy smile on as he talked animatedly with his fangirls. There were times he didn’t want to talk to them, but this was not one of those times, beautiful girls from other schools were here to see him. He couldn't just disappoint them.

“O-Oikawa! Can I have your number?” A brunette asked with her phone already in hand.

“Sorry, but I can’t give you my phone number.” He scratched the back of his head apologetically.

“Then a photo?”

“Eh? You wanna take a picture? Sure! Of course, y-”

\-------

“This guy. I swear. We need to get him a child leash.” Hajime muttered.

Yana laughed as she kept pace with him, “You mean a child harness?”

“No, a child leash. In fact, make it a dog leash.”

Yana quietly sent a small prayer Oikawa’s way. _Let’s hope Hajime doesn’t follow through with that idea._ “Ah! There he is.”

Hajime stopped and held his hand out. Yana promptly placed the volleyball she was holding in his hand and watched as Hajime launched it at the back of Oikawa’s head. Even from a few feet away, both Hajime and Yana heard the panicked fangirls.

“Oikawa! Are you ok?!”

“Oikawa!”

“Is your head alright?”

Oikawa turned to the direction of the hit. “That hurt! Not even the coach has thrown a ball at me.” He froze as soon as he saw Hajime and Yana. Hajime’s angered face was enough to instill fear into him, but when paired with Yana’s disappointed expression, they were a destructive force. Oikawa turned around and waved goodbye to his fangirls. “Sorry, we’ll take a picture next time, okay~?”

\----

The three of them made their way through the hallways then out to the second floor viewing area. Yana immediately ran over to the edge and the hand railing. It felt like an eternity since she last saw a multi-court arena. There were three courts lined up parallel to each other. She watched as the teams down below milled around the courts, some were doing warm up drills, some were doing stretching exercises. The area was a splash of different school colors and numbers. Each team had their own play style and unique members, but every single player and coach alike had the same goal. Everyone wanted to win.

Yana backed away from the railing then looked around for Oikawa and Hajime. To Yana’s utter dismay neither were present. She vaguely remembered Hajime saying something like ‘Don’t be distracted. You might get lost.' And something about going to the viewing area by Court A. Yana looked left, right, then left again. She was lost. Instead of asking if anyone had seen the other Aoba Johsai students like a sensible person, Yana decided to wander around the halls.

“Sylph!”

“Y-yes?” She turned around hesitantly.

“What are you doing here?!” Nishinoya bounced up and down closer to Yana. “I didn’t expect you to be here!” He practically vibrated with enthusiasm. He got to meet his idol not once, but twice within a span of a few weeks.

“Oh, well I'm just lost. The usual. I'm not really sure which way to go.” Yana played with her side braid slightly embarrassed at herself. “I need to get to the viewing area, the one that overlooks Court A.”

“I can lead you there if you want!” Nishinoya chirped, enthusiastic as ever.

Yana waved her hands in refusal. “No, just giving me directions will be enough. You have a game to play.”

\----------

“Iwa-chan.”

“Yeah?”

“I think we lost Yana-chan.”

“What?!” Hajime exclaimed as he turned around only to be greeted by nothing. “I told her to stay close!”

“Maybe she is already there? I'm sure she won’t have too much trouble to get to the location” Oikawa offered in an attempt to soothe his best friend.

Hajime groaned and dragged his hand down his face, exasperated. _Oikawa and Yana’s vanishing abilities will be the death of me one day._ “Let’s hope she’s already there, if anything I can go look for her once I drop you off with the rest of the team.”

“What? Drop me off? Iwa-chan, let me go with you!"

\-------

“Ok I think I have it now. Left, left, take the stairs, right, right again then straight ahead.”

“Yeah!” Nishinoya gave her a wide toothed grin and two thumbs ups. “That’s the way to go.”

“Thank you, you’re real a lifesaver. Good luck on your first two games! See you later!” Yana turned tail and ran in the direction she needed to get to.

“Bye!” He waved just as enthusiastic. By the time that Nishinoya was walking away he just realized he never asked Yana what team she was here for. He had noticed her jacket colors, but compared to all the other students, Nishinoya had never seen someone wearing that pattern before. He had seen words on the back of her jacket, but he didn’t have time to read them before she was already running. Nishinoya gave the clock on the wall a quick glance. He had better get going too, the first match was in twenty-five minutes and he still needed to warm up.

\------

The sound of squeaking shoes and balls being spiked almost overpowered the scattered chatter as Yana made it back up to the viewing area.

“Yana! There you are!” Kindaichi waved her over as the team paused. They had learned a little too late that Yana had a tendency to wander off somewhere, but thankfully -just like a pigeon- she would always be able to find her way back to them.

Yana tottered over there and merged with the group again. _No getting lost this time._

“Ah! It’s turnip head!” a familiar voice shouted.

Kunimi almost snorted with the effort he put into stifling his laughter.

Yana and the other members turned to face the speaker. It was Hinata. Her eyes were immediately drawn to Tsukishima. She grimaced as she saw the unenthusiastic teen. As childish as it may be, she still didn't like him.

“Ya~hoo! How’s the freak duo nowadays~?” Oikawa held up a peace sign and leaned over the handrails slightly.

“Ah! It’s the Grand King!”

Nishinoya turned to see what Hinata was making a fuss about. “And the Sylph!” he exclaimed.

Yana joined Oikawa by the handrails and gave Karasuno a greeting wave. “The one and only.”

“I didn’t know you were with Aoba Johsai! You guys are in the same bracket as we are. Oh! That’s why you said, ‘see you later’.”

It was a little awkward having a conversation where one of the participants was upstairs and the other was downstairs. The spectators could hear every word, so Yana had to be careful about what she shouted, “Yep.”

“But your jacket is really different to theirs.”

“She’s our Student Coach!” Oikawa slung an arm over Yana’s shoulders proudly. “Bet you don’t have one of those!”

Hajime hit both Oikawa and Yana on the head. “Shush you two.”

Oikawa rubbed the back of his head “Iwa-chan!”

“Wait, why me too?!” Yana protested as she too tried to stop the stinging with rubbing.

Hajime crossed his arms over his chest, a slight scowl on his face. “You are distracting them from their warm up. We should be watching carefully and not making a racket.”

Yana and Oikawa looked at each other then back at Hajime. “Oops?”

“You two…”

\------

Suga sighed, “We told you she was in Aoba Johsai the day you met her.”

“Oh. I guess I forgot.” Nishinoya beamed.

“Everyone line up!” Coach Ukai announced to his team.

\-----

“A new Coach and new players” Oikawa muttered now seriously watching the game.

Coach Irihata smiled intrigued. “I wonder just how much Karasuno has changed. “

Yana smirked. “Better keep your eyes peeled then. These two new members are outstanding.”

The team looked at her confused. “Do you know them?”

Yana waved away their question. “Something like that. I’ll tell you later.” 


	37. The Better Setter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karasuno v Aoba Johsai

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you call an Alligator in a vest?  
> An Investigator!
> 
> Enjoy!

Aoba Johsai's first match ended without much difficulty. It was an easy two to zero. Though Oikawa's many service aces were one of the main contributors.

"Twenty-five to ten for the first set then twenty-five to six for the second set. That was pretty sad" Yana shook her head. She was used to seeing one sided games like that and they were never fun to watch. That's not to say she didn't appreciate an easy game but sometimes she couldn't help but feel a little bad for the opponent.

"We managed to save some energy for our next match" Oikawa gave the team a model worthy smile, that held no hostility, "I'm really excited to face Karasuno with everything I have! I'd really enjoy breaking them," His words didn’t match his chipper expression. It was chilling to say the least.

\------

As soon as Aoba Johsai stepped on the court a few high-pitched squeals gushed from the stands. "Oikawa! Good luck! Do your best!"

Oikawa waved to the girls with a photo perfect appearance. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Oi, focus." Iwaizumi glared as he passed a ball to Oikawa. "Let's warm up"

Oikawa gave toss after toss to his teammates. "Nice going Makki! Right on target"

Another toss "Sorry Kindaichi that toss was a little high"

The last practice toss went to Hajime. "Iwa-chan, aren't you trying a little too hard? You don’t need to show off. There aren’t any girls who’d watch you after all!”

Hajime froze for just a second before he picked up a volleyball and prepared to slam it into Oikawa's smug face.

"Iwaizumi calm down!" Kindaichi held Hajime back trying to save Oikawa from Hajime's wrath.

Yana held her breath to stifle her laughter. While it is true that most -if not all- girls who were cheering for the team had come to support Oikawa specifically, but that didn’t mean Hajime didn’t have a fair number of fans himself. What the team didn’t know that the Aoba Johsai Volleyball Fanclub recently held a poll to find out who was the most popular. Unsurprisingly Oikawa was first, but second and third place were held by Hajime and Yana, respectfully.

Coach Irihata called the entire team over to him. “We don’t want #10 to be leading you around by the nose again, so it is imperative that you control the ball’s course and stop whatever is stoppable. Keep everything else in the air.”

The team nodded in response before they huddled up, Yana included. They heard Karasuno finish their own cheer and naturally they couldn’t let themselves be outdone by the crows.

Yana took a deep breath before she started the Aoba Johsai huddle. “Seijoh! Rule the court!”

“YEAH!”

They released each other from the huddle. “Alright! Let’s do this.” Before the team walked on court Oikawa turned around to face his team. “I’ll be counting on you again today.”

Before every match Oikawa would say the same thing. Coming from him, they could mean anything from a pleasantly to a threat, but the entire team understood that this moment is one of the few times where his words held no double meaning and he was absolutely serious. The entire team would give their all and place their trust in him as both a Setter and a captain.

“Everyone line up!” the referee announced to both teams. It was the end of the official warmup and the match was about to begin.

Yana gave Oikawa’s back a gentle pat but didn’t say anything. No words were needed. The atmosphere around the entire Aoba Johsai team changed as the starting members made their presence known on the court.

_‘I want us to win.’_

\------

“Ya~hoo Tobio-chan!” Oikawa waved to Kageyama as they each took their places by the net. “I came here today looking forward to defeating the ‘genius setter’ so do try your best and put up a fight.”

“We won’t lose!” Hinata yelled before Kageyama could answer.

“Don’t just come over here and cut me off, idiot!” Kageyama yelled equally as loud as his orange haired teammate. He turned back to Oikawa and cleared his throat. “We won’t lose this time either!”

\-------

Yana sat in her designated area by the coach and began to compare each team’s starting order. From what Yana had seen from the Nekoma v Karasuno match the order was unsurprising. _Nishinoya, Tanaka, Asahi, Sawamura, Tsukishima and of course the wonder duo, Hinata and Kageyama._ Like Coach Irihata, Yana was also excited to see how the team had evolved since she had last seen them.

\-----

Karasuno had the opening serve. Tsukishima went for an overhand serve and sent the ball over the net.

Kunimi hit the ball up and passed it over to Oikawa. Matsukawa and Hajime started their run up and leapt. Oikawa too jumped up to reach the ball faster. He changed his hand position and sent down a sudden dump shot surprising both Karasuno and the spectators. The first point went to Aoba Johsai.

  
“Come on now. I'm going to do the same thing again next time, ok? Don’t space out, make sure to stay vigilant.” Oikawa chirped with a smug look on his face.

\----

Yana watched the dump happen then sighed as she heard Oikawa taunt Kageyama and Hinata. “He really can’t keep it to himself, can he?”

Coach Irihata chuckled slightly. “Not at all.”

\-----

“Send it over!” Hinata yelled as he ran up to the net beside Tanaka. 

Both the spectators and players prepared for the legendary freak quick. Hinata jumped as high as he could, his eyes closed with absolute faith in Kageyama’s toss. Hinata swung his hand down with all his strength. While it was touching and amazing that Hinata had enough trust in his setter to close his eyes and blindly spike, it wasn’t the slightest bit desirable in the long run. 

The ball flew right to the Libero. Watari dug the ball to Oikawa who was already mid-air in spike position. Both Tanaka and Hinata jumped to block Oikawa. “Just kidding~” Oikawa barely changed his posture and set the ball to Hajime who slammed the ball down with a hard swing.

“Oi, that was a little low.”

“Really? Sorry” Oikawa returned to his spot a little surprised by his mishap. “But you can always get there to hit it anyway Iwa-chan.” The cheers of the crowd almost threatened to drown out his words.

\------

Both Coach Irihata and Yana watched as the next rally began. Hinata and Tanaka ran towards the net once more to attack. “It’s going to Tanaka, I think?” Yana tilted her head, something felt a little off with her prediction, Yana’s eyes widened. _Wait. A pipe?_ Yana shifted her attention to Asahi who was in position for the back attack. At the last moment Kageyama changed his set into a dump and let it drop to Aoba Johsai’s side of the net. Everyone, including Kageyama’s teammates paused in shock. Yana bit her lip to try and contain her laughter. She really shouldn’t laugh but it was a little amusing.

Once the shock was over, the crowd cheered. “He returned the favor with a dump shot of his own!”

\-----

“Next time, I’ll do the same thing again, so please do be vigilant.” Kageyama scowled. He hated to lose, especially when it came to volleyball.

“You damn brat.”

No one could keep their eyes off both Setters. It felt like a ‘Setter Showdown’ if anything. But knowing Oikawa and Kageyama’s past it was inevitable stand off.

“That’s amazing, Kageyama! You outsmarted the Grand King!” Hinata punched the air to congratulate Kageyama.

“Even if he’s someone whose overall power is the best in the prefecture, when it comes to being a Setter, I won’t lose.”

Thanks to the point Karasuno scored, the team rotated clockwise which meant Kageyama was the server. He recalled Oikawa’s serve then began to try it himself. It was unfortunate but expected that Kageyama sent the ball flying a little too far out.

“That was a real impressive missile.” Hajime watched the ball soar right out of the court.

“Nice homerun, Tobio-chan!” Aoba Johsai went through a rotation after their free point which put Oikawa in position to serve. “I suppose as your senior I’ll just have to show you how it’s done.”

\------

Yana tilted her head slightly as she watched the ball. Fairly recently Oikawa had asked Yana to show him a jump topspin serve and teach him how to properly execute it. Due to his hard work and dedication it didn’t take very long for him to master it, even Yana was impressed. Though, on more than one occasion both Hajime and herself had to drag Oikawa off court and back home. They both knew that if they didn’t, then Oikawa would probably be practicing all night long.

\------

Oikawa tossed the ball up and took a few paces forward before he jumped and smacked the ball over at its highest point. The ball flew to Nishinoya at an amazingly fast pace. It seemed like a drive serve with how it was going towards Nishinoya, thought Yana was absolutely certain that Oikawa had put a nasty spin on the ball.

Nishinoya prepared himself, he had heard scary things about Oikawa's serve. He couldn’t miss the receive. He was going to show the team that Oikawa’s serves weren’t unstoppable.


	38. Hit it...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its a long match.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where to sick boats go to get healthy?  
> The dock!
> 
> Happy reading!

Nishinoya analyzed the serve as it came hurtling in his direction. _A drive? No, it has a spin. Jump topspin to the right_. Nishinoya repositioned himself before the ball’s arrival then once he felt the sting on his forearms, he brought the ball up and kept it in play. “Nishinoya, Nice receive!”

“How was that ‘showing how it’s done’. The Libero got it with a normal receive!” Hajime shouted to his friend, not once taking his eyes off the ball.

“Whoopsie. He really is something though, that Libero.”

The ball made a clean arc to Karasuno’s Setter. Kageyama turned his head briefly to face Asahi on the right before immediately turning his eyes back to the ball.

Kindaichi noticed his moments and looked towards where Kageyama glanced over too. Unlike Tsukishima in the Nekoma match, Kindaichi didn’t run to the right. However, simply looking to the side slowed his reaction time down enough that the freak quick managed to shoot straight overhead without Kindaichi even jumping in attempts to stop the ball.

\-----

Yana made a mental note to tell Kenma and Kuroo about Kageyama’s recent development. Though Kenma wouldn’t show it, he would be a little flattered that ‘Kageyama the genius Setter’ used one of his tricks and made it into his own. Imitation is the highest form of flattery after all.

“Being able to still do a pinpoint toss after taking his eyes off the ball for a moment, really is some amazing skill. What a superhuman toss.” Coach Irihata voiced everyone’s collective thoughts. There was no denying that Kageyama was a talented setter.

Being only a few meters apart, Yana was able to hear the conversation between Karasuno’s Coach and their Teacher Advisor. At one-point Yana would need to learn his name. She couldn’t just keep calling him Teacher Advisor.

“Oikawa’s serve is truly frightening” The advisor shuddered at the mere memory.

Coach Ukai nodded. “Being able to successfully keep tight control on the power of his initial serve and make it spin, is especially impressive for a high schooler.”

“It’s a shame he ended up hitting it to Nishinoya by mistake.”

“No. I think he was aiming for Nishinoya. Oikawa’s train of thought was probably, ‘If the Libero couldn’t keep it in play, that alone would be a real blow to the mindset of the Karasuno team.’ Coach Ukai laughed and relaxed his posture. “Except, our Libero’s got a good head on his shoulders. But now, Oikawa won’t be targeting Nishinoya with his serves anymore.”

Yana agreed internally with both statements. Oikawa was the type of person to do something like that. Luckily for Karasuno, Nishinoya had accomplished to save the entire game and not just that one point.

\-------

Kindaichi mumbled an apology to Oikawa. “Sorry, I just keep getting fooled by them.”

Oikawa shrugged. “Give me just a little longer and I’ll have a clue on how to catch that quick attack. It won’t be long now.” Oikawa smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “That aside, you must be frustrated, having your place as ‘Kageyama’s partner’ stolen away but the little orange shrimp.”

“No, not really” Kindaichi responded without hesitation. He had no attachments as ‘Kageyama’s partner’, rather he was actually quite happy they weren’t on the same team anymore.

“Back in junior high he probably thought of you as a particularly useless ‘servant’. The Egotistical King has no need for someone who can’t hit his tosses after all.” Oikawa shrugged.

Kindaichi glared at the back of Oikawa’s head. He wasn’t sure what Oikawa was getting at, but Kindaichi hoped that he would just get to the point without insulting him any further.

“Ah, but don’t worry! Even though I can’t use that super quick toss of his, we’ll prove to him that Kindaichi is even more amazing. Don’t think about it too much. Just jump and the ball will come to you.”

Kindaichi wasn’t expecting to hear anything along those lines, especially considering he was being insulted during the entire first half. “R-right!” The whistle blew as soon as Kindaichi replied.

“Tanaka nice serve!”

The ball went over the net and Watari swiftly moved to receive the ball. After hours and hours of rigorous practice with the rest of the team Watari had grown to be more confident in his receives. He may not be on the same level as one of the nation’s top three, but he had faith in the skills he learned and polished.

Just as promised Oikawa sent the ball straight to Kindaichi. Kindaichi leapt up as high as he could, pulled his arm back and spiked the ball right over Hinata’s reach.

“Way to go, Kindaichi!” Watari cheered for his teammate.

\-----

“What was that?” Sawamura furrowed his eyebrows as he spoke to his team. “Maybe I just imagined it, but didn’t #12 over there, jump higher than he did during the practice match?”

“Can you really improve your jumping power in such a short span of time?” Asahi raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t present for the first practice match, but he knew that something like that couldn’t be possible, right?

\----

The match continued with Hajime starting the rally. The sound of the players’ heavy footsteps were overpowered by the cheers of the audience. Every call out had to be belted out as loud as possible to make it audible over the noise from the stands.

“Send it over!” Hinata jumped up with all his effort pulling Kindaichi into jumping along with him.

Kageyama tossed the ball over to Asahi and without hesitation he smacked the ball and broke right through Kunimi’s block. “Alriiiight!”

A Cheshire cat-like smile graced Oikawa’s features, everyone on the team knew what that look meant. “Ah, Got it.” Oikawa turned to Yana and Coach Irihata “Coach! Yana-chan!” he whisper shouted.

Yana quickly stood up and held her hands in the shape of a ‘T’ for the referee to see.

The referee blew his whistle and held his hand up. “Aoba Johsai High School, timeout” Both Karasuno and the crowd were confused by the sudden timeout. It was still early in the game and it wasn’t like either team was on a point streak.

\-------

The team gathered around the Coach and Yana with their water bottles and towels in hand.

“It was a bit hard to hear everyone’s voices during Karasuno’s previous matches, so I wasn’t entirely certain, but after listening a little longer, there is no mistaking it. The way to tell when Tobio-chan and the little orange shrimp are about to use their superhuman quick is by listening to their voices. They use vocal signals, the phrase ‘bring’ and ‘send’ are the tells.” Oikawa huffed proudly. “At first, I thought that the shorty was just shouting something while he rushed forward. For the superfast quick he uses words like ‘bring’ or ‘give’ but if the attack is going to be a normal quick then he uses the word ‘send’.”

Yana flipped through her memories to try and recall all the prior matches. She felt a little bad that she wasn’t able to realize something so obvious despite it being part of her responsibilities as a Student Coach. “So, what I'm getting is that whenever Hinata, err- #10 uses the word ‘send’ we ignore him?”

Hajime was the next to speak up. “We can just have one-person mark #10 when he says ‘bring’ then when he says ‘send’ just watch where the ball goes before jumping for the block.”

“Aw, Iwa-chan is being smart!” Oikawa gushed proudly.

“Wanna say that again, Shittykawa?” Hajime challenged.

Yana interrupted before Oikawa could say anything more. “Alrighty!”

“But calling a timeout this early in the game, wouldn’t they have realized that we’ve noticed their signals?” Matsukawa added.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine! Actually, better that they know. Since we have noticed their signals, then I'm sure that Tobio-chan will lose his composure, even if it is just a little.”

There was a collective silence through the team. “You have an absolutely disagreeable personality” She wanted to hide her equally evil grin, but she couldn’t help it. It’s not like Oikawa was wrong.

“Yana-chan!” Oikawa whined. "I'm a wonderful person!"

\-------

Once the timeout was over and the game began, it was apparent that Oikawa’s predictions were spot on. Now that Kageyama was starting to panic his dump was easily thwarted by Oikawa. Kageyama had started to crack under the extreme pressure that Hanamaki, Matsukawa and Oikawa exuded. Yana couldn’t really blame him though. He was surrounded by three six feet-ish tall third years.

“Send it over here!” Hinata jumped and swung his hand to try to spike the ball past the net. He was unsuccessful.

A chill went through Kageyama as he realized that Aoba Johsai had picked up on Hinata’s vocal cues.

\-------

Yana watched as it was Kageyama’s turn to serve. He looked like someone had ruffled his feathers -in this case it was probably Oikawa. Kageyama tossed the ball a little too far forward for his serve and almost got called for a foul. Even Yana could see that he was feeling more and more pressured to score points for his team. Hinata’s blocked spike was probably the final nail in the coffin.

\-----

The entirety of Aoba Johsai wasn’t expecting a jump float serve from Kageyama of all people. Hanamaki scrambled to dive forward to keep the ball in play, followed quickly by Hajime to try to get the ball under control. “Oikawa, last hit’s yours!”

Oikawa hit the ball directly at Kageyama which forced him to have first touch.

From then on Kageyama’s little mishaps started to add up to more and more points till it was time for Oikawa’s serve. He bounced the ball a few times before he began.

\-----

Yana saw the look on his face while he served, and she immediately knew who Oikawa planned to target. With the level of control he had over the ball, Oikawa could have easily just aimed for a place with no defenders but instead he always chose a player to serve to.

_‘If you are going to hit it, hit it till it breaks’_

Oikawa’s motto was always a rather scary one, she remembered hearing it the first time and that immediately cleared up a lot of initial confusion when it came to Oikawa’s gameplay decisions. It reminded her that to play volleyball you needed not only physical strength but mental fortitude as well.

Yana watched as serve after serve was sent to Tanaka and each time, he failed to return the ball. The one exception when he did somehow get the ball up, Tanaka’s spike was easily denied by Kindaichi and Hajime.

“Karasuno High School, second timeout.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter actually turned out longer than I thought it would, which I was not expecting. 
> 
> Writing sport scenes Is so much harder than I originally anticipated.


	39. ...Till it Breaks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Results of the match  
> Aftermath of the tournament  
> Working on a paper about Aliens is hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why is Peter Pan always flying?  
> He Neverlands!
> 
> Enjoy!

Yana watched the match continue. Aoba Johsai had won the first set before Tanaka had finally gotten back in the groove again. The second set was a painfully close one with Karasuno just scraping out a victory.

Truthfully, Yana had gotten a little distracted as she was writing notes that she missed some of the gameplay. By the time she had put her pen down she only caught a glimpse of the silver-haired setter walking back to the bench. If she had heard correctly, he was a third year named Suga.

Yana saw the slight disappointment in his reassuring smile. She couldn’t even begin to fathom how frustrating it must feel for him. The unfortunate third year student who was replaced by the genius first year. Yana quickly snuck a glance at Karasuno’s coach. It must have been difficult for him to bench Suga for Kageyama, but he didn’t make a wrong decision. To climb to the top and win the tournament, the team must have the absolute best players they can provide.

_‘The team with the most skilled players will win no matter what.’_

Yana clicked her tongue and grumbled. She didn’t need to be ‘enlightened’ by the words of her Demon Coach. That philosophy was one of the many she didn’t agree with, there are plenty of other factors that influence the flow of the game.

Yana shuffled restlessly in her seat and twirled the pen in her hands. It was the third set and there was no room for error. The cheers from the stands were more than enough to fill the arena. To avoid making the same mistakes both teams utilized what they learned in the first and second sets. _Since we’ve reached the third set the team should be used to Karasuno’s attack patterns._

But the same could be said for their opponents. It was only natural for Karasuno to also believe that they had seen everything Aoba Johsai had to offer. Unfortunately for them, they were wrong.

\-----

“Watacchi!” Oikawa had the first touch to return the ball.

_I’m no match for Nishinoya’s defensive capabilities as a Libero. I know that. But there is something that I can do for the team that he can’t._ Watari ran up to the attack line “Got it!” He held his breath and jumped up to set the ball midair.

\----

Yana grinned proudly. Watari had told her prior to the match that he wanted to do as much as he could for the team and lo behold, he was making good use of this newly learned skills. Yana watched as the ball went up cleanly and Oikawa finished with a solid back attack. He slammed it down and the spectators erupted in cheers.

Not even a few minutes after the celebration Karasuno had finally decided to bring Hinata back on the court. _The freak quick was back. This combo, that sets their own ridiculous pace, can’t be allowed to remain on the court for long._

Yana winced as another one of Hinata’s superfast quicks made it past Hanamaki and Kindaichi. Yana watched with her fingers crossed as she watched her teammates scramble just to receive the ball. Spike after spike and steadily Karasuno was closing the point gap.

“Come on ball, fall on Karasuno’s side already…” Yana clenched her clipboard tightly. She could tell just how tired her team was. The rally seemed to go on forever. There were only a few point’s separating Aoba Johsai and Karasuno but there were even fewer separating Aoba Johsai and victory. The game had made it to an astounding thirty-one to thirty-two. Aoba Johsai just needed one more point to win.

\------

“What an incredible nuisance.” Oikawa spun the ball in his hands. _Tobio, with your rapid development you might just win against me..._ Oikawa let out one deep exhale as he focused. The sound dulled in his ear, as he tossed the ball up. His heart pounded like a battle drum as he awakened the way of the King. The world seemed to go in slow motion as the ball bounced back and forth in a desperate rally. It slowly became apparent that there was a difference in their strength as a team.

Kageyama set up a quick toss for Hinata.

_It’s up to the setter to bring out one hundred percent of a Spiker’s capabilities no matter who that Spiker may be._

Hinata slammed the ball down as hard as he could.

_Until you can do that you won’t win. Not against me and certainly, not against us._ Oikawa watched as Hinata’s attack was blocked by Kindaichi.

All the Karasuno members dived for the ball in a last-ditch effort to save the rally.

“End of match! Winners, Aoba Johsai High School” The referee blew a long high-pitched whistle to signal the game.

The team cheered and pumped their fist up in their celebration. Yana squealed just as excited for them and dove right into the group hug. She wasn’t the biggest fan of sweaty hugs. Those were gross. But this was an exception. She was so proud of her team. Yana wormed her way to Watari and attacked him with a noogie. “My little baby, you are all grown up now.” She looked around and saw Kindaichi. “And you! You did so good blocking the last quick!” Yana ruffled his hair without a second thought. then turned to face the entire team “You did it! I'm so proud of you all!”

“You mean, we did it” Hajime corrected her."Remember? We brought this up already."

Yana was stunned for a moment. All she had really done was sit on the sidelines, she didn’t believe she contributed enough.

The team waited expectantly.

Instead of denying the statement she amended her last comment. “We did it.” She had long forgotten how it felt like to be on a team rather than just a group. It would take a while of getting used to but it was a refreshing change that she welcomed with open arms.

\--------

Unfortunately, Aoba Johsai’s victory was short-lived. On the third day of the tournament Aoba Johsai lost to Shiratorizawa.

It was a straight two sets. The game was close, but they couldn’t quite beat them. The practice, experience and strategy that lead them to that final game were all crushed through brute force alone.

“The one who lets the ball hit the floor loses. That’s all there is to it.”

**_-_ ** **\----A FEW HOURS LATER-----**

As soon as the team got back to their respective houses the reality of the match results really sank in, they had played their best, but it wasn’t enough.

She heard a ping on her phone, she had forgotten to tell Kuroo and Kenma how the tournament went.

**_Kenma:_ ** _how did the match go?_

**_Yana:_ ** _We lost :(_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Ouch. How’s the team doing?_

**_Yana:_ ** _as well as you’d expect from them_

**_Kenma:_ ** _and you?_

**_Yana:_ ** _a little disappointed tbh. I keep thinking that maybe there was something I could have done better_

**_Yana:_ ** _ya know?_

**_Yana:_ ** _like, maybe if I had done something different, we might have had a better chance of winning._

She put her phone down and sighed into her pillow. For the first time in her high school career Yana cried after a volleyball match.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----A FEW DAYS LATER-----**

It would be a while till their next competition, so Yana had decided to put a bit more work on the project. She had been neglecting it for some time now, so she had resolved herself to doing it on the weekend. “Aliens this, aliens that. I'm going to lose my mind.” She lamented as she continued to read as many articles as possible. “Maybe I'm just brainwashing myself.” Yana looked at her phone that she had left on her bedside table. “I could just not do the work. I mean it’s a weekend anyway” Yana clicked one more link. “I’ll read one more then I’ll be done.”

She had hit the jackpot. Or as close as you can get to one. It was hard to tell if the article was purely fact or opinion. It was written that the Department of Defense had confirmed that aliens are most probably real. Of course, no reputable source is going to flat out say they believe in Aliens, but they could speculate. There were three videos that had driven speculation about unidentified flying objects for years. The videos were captured by naval aviators and show objects hurtling through the sky. The pilots spoke about objects that seemed to defy the laws of physics, a technology far more advanced than anything on earth.

The more Yana watched, the more she humored the idea. She definitely wasn’t a believer, but she would at least be a little more open to the possibility that there really might be something out there. As Yana attempted to analyze the videos, she wrote down notes and ‘evidence’ she could use to support the argument. Yana didn’t realize how much time had passed till she heard her phone ring.

“Hello?”

“Konpeito-chan!” Oikawa chirped over his side of the phone.

“If you want me to receive your serves again the answer is no. I'm in the middle of doing the project.” Yana groaned as she felt a headache coming along.

“That’s so mean!”

Yana couldn’t see Oikawa, but she could easily tell from his tone of voice that he was pouting. “So, what did you call for?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, the joke in the beginning notes,   
> It never gets OLD. 
> 
> BADUM TSS


	40. Fireflies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa fulfilled a promise  
> Happy feels because we all love happy feels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm here for whatever you need me to do from the couch.
> 
> Happy Reading!

“I didn’t really know if you’d be awake, so I called you.”

“You called me...” Yana glanced at the clock. “…at one in the morning to see if I was awake?” Yana had to keep the irritation out of her voice. What if she actually was asleep?

Oikawa didn’t hesitate to reply, “Yep!”

“I’m hanging up.”

Oikawa quickly responded and scrambled to arrange his words. “No! Wait! I called you because I have something to show you! You have to come outside though.”

“Oikawa. It is hot. It is dark. I am wearing my pajamas. I don’t want to go outside and suffer.”

“Please, Konpeito-chan!”

“I don’t wanna” Yana whined in response. _Don’t cave, don’t cave, don’t cave._

“It’ll be worth it.”

 _No, stop. You said you’d stop agreeing._ “Can’t you just ask Hajime?”

“It has to be you” Oikawa emphasized his words. He wasn’t lying when he said that it had to be her, and he wanted to express it as much as possible in his voice.

 _It’s one in the morning. Don’t do it._ “Fine. But I'm not dressing up for whatever it is.” Yana screamed internally as her mouth moved before her mind could screen the words.

“Yay~!” Oikawa grinned from ear to ear. “Wait outside, I’ll be there soon.” He hung up and rushed to get ready himself.

“Fuck. I'm whipped.” Yana hid her face in her hands. “This idiot has me wrapped around his little finger.”

\-------

“Konpeito-chan!” Oikawa ran over as fast as he could. “Hurry or we’ll miss it!”

“Miss what?”

Oikawa had already started running before she could get her answer. Yana grumbled as she started running after him. It was too hot outside for this and running in flip flops didn’t help the situation. “Oikawaaa wait!” the flip flops really weren’t helping as she tried to keep up with his pace. Yana was about to take them off and go barefoot before Oikawa scooped her up in his arms, princess style. Yana’s heart skipped a beat as he held her close.

“No can do!” He threw his head back in laughter as he continued as fast as he could. He was slower now that he was carrying Yana, but it would be faster and safer than her running barefoot.

Even in the dark she could see his smile. There was something about it. The way it seemed to cause butterflies to escape from the pits of her stomach. It was the kind of smile that made you happy to have gone along with his plans, as ridiculous as they may be.

“We are almost there. You have to close your eyes, it’s a surprise.”

“Uh…”

“Do you trust me?”

Yana pursed her lips. He hadn’t given her any reason not to trust him, but a little inkling of doubt stained her thoughts. She slowly closed her eyes. She held onto him tightly as to not fall and listened to the sounds of the night. She heard his heavy breathing first but when she listened a little harder, she could hear the wind rustling through the tree’s leaves.

By the time Oikawa reached his destination it had been a good few minutes and he was panting by the time he gently let her down. “Open your eyes.”

Yana was greeted with a grassy meadow dotted by petite fragrant daisies. The minimal lighting from the moon splashed what would have been a colorful meadow with hues of muted greens, blues and purples. The meadow was on a gentle slope with beech and oak trees interspersed. The flowers seemed to be a pale lilac and the grass mirrored the deep color of the twilight sky. It was a bewitching sight. “This is really beautiful and all, but what are we doing here?”

“It’s our third date!”

“Date? We’ve only been on one date and that was to grab coffee.”

Oikawa took a deep breath in. “Yana. You and I went to the aquarium. Together. Alone.”

“W-wait, I just thought that was like, a friendly outing or something.” Yana blushed rather embarrassed over her assumptions.

“We were wearing couple outfits.”

“On accident!” Yana protested.

“We were literally in the advertisement photos together.” Oikawa pinched the bridge of his nose.

Yana gasped. “Oh. Oh, you’re right.”

“How can you possibly be this oblivious? Even Iwa-chan knew it was a date.”

Yana pouted but before she could reply she saw a flash of light to her left.

“Oh! Weren’t too late.” Oikawa held his arms outstretched and gestured to the entirety of the meadow. “I said I would show you fireflies.”

Yana’s eyes widened as she watched in awe while the fireflies danced onto their star-studded stage. It was like nothing she had seen before. The fireflies flickered their lights as if they were sparkling, the creatures flew around the pair with practiced grace, the sight alone was enough to stun her to silence. These tiny glimmers of light electrified the warm night like how she would imagine a fairy would.

“Pretty awesome isn’t it? I figured they would start coming out since it’s pretty warm out tonight.”

Yana just nodded as she watched their seemingly choreographed dance. She could barely believe her eyes. “Thank you for showing me this.”

\-------

The next tournament wasn’t till later in the year so Oikawa took that time to catch up on anything he had missed and reflect on things he could have done better as a person, a Setter and a team captain. It was because of this that he could finally focus on a very pressing matter. Yana.

At first, she was just a curiosity. Hajime had a relative transferring into the school from Tokyo so of course Oikawa was going to meet her. His first impression of her was hostile and stiff. Honestly it wasn’t a very good first impression on her part. As fate would have it, they somehow got stuck together. Same class, same club, they were even working on the group project together. After Yana joined the club, she had finally warmed up to him. Oikawa looked up at the moon and sighed. Before he realized it, it was too late to keep his feelings under control.

_I like her._

Oikawa thought long and hard about if he should confess or not. But ultimately, he decided that he needed to. Oikawa knew Yana was pretty and that she was definitely popular which is why he felt like time was of the essence. What if someone were to just fly in and sweep her off her feet? Yana spoke an awful lot about ‘Kuroo’ and ‘Kenma’, and while he was grateful they had saved her from her crazy ex, he felt jealous of their closeness to her. Not that he would ever admit it.

“Yana.” This was the perfect moment he had been waiting for.

“Yes?”

“Well, you see…” Oikawa swallowed the lump in his throat. “I think you are a really cool person” _Cool person? Cool person?! You practiced an entire speech and ‘cool person’ is the first thing that comes to mind?_ Oikawa tried again. “You are a really good Libero; your shoes are really ugly though.” _What am I saying?! I have no idea what I'm saying._ Oikawa subtly rummaged in his pockets to find the notecards he had written just in case something like this happened. After a little bit Oikawa had given up searching and resigned himself to his fate. There was always a next time.

\------

Yana watched as Oikawa floundered to find the words he was looking for. He was usually as smooth as butter but this time he was so flustered you would think that something had happened. “I think you are a really cool person too.” Yana grinned as she imitated his words. She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted playfully, “But I think my shoes are the greatest things ever. It’s ok if you don’t understand how perfect they are.”

“Eh~ I'm not sure.” Oikawa shrugged. “They are hideous.”

Yana smirked “Oh? Says the person with a horrible fashion sense. Hajime told me that he helped you pick out your first outfit. He actually sent me a photo of your original outfit. You know, before he helped. Plaid shorts are not a good look on you.” Yana pulled out her phone to prove her point.

“Iwa-chan betrayed me?!” Oikawa winced as he saw the picture. It was a very unflattering photo, that’s for sure. “Konpeito-chan~ you should totally delete that photo; I can send you a much cuter selfie in return.”

“I kinda like this one though. It really brings out your bad taste in clothes. You’ll have to take it if you want to delete it.” Yana stuck her tongue out at him. “But since Hajime can just send another copy to me there would be no point in trying.”

Oikawa took her challenge and reached for her phone. Yana moved it to the left just before he could grab it. “Konpeito-chan you should let me win!”

Yana giggled as they continued their game. “No can do! Losing isn’t my thing.”

The pair ran around the meadow and seemed to join the fireflies in their dance. Unlike the fireflies they weren’t nearly as graceful which resulted in them both falling. Yana fell first then Oikawa fell right after in a makeshift attempt to catch her. Yana closed her eyes to prepare for the impact, but her head never hit the floor, instead she felt Oikawa’s hand stop the collision. “Are you alright?”

Yana blushed at his closeness when she realized he had fallen on top of her. She couldn’t move very much as he was holding himself up over her with one hand, their legs tangled together. “Y-yeah I'm good, thanks.” Her blush on her face was thankfully partially obscured by the dim lighting of the night. Yana looked up at him and their eyes met. Every ounce of breath she had seemed to be taken from her and left to float into the air like midnight smoke.

Yana’s heart raced at a mile a minute and the fluttering in her stomach didn’t wane in the slightest. She didn’t want to give a name to this feeling because she already knew what it was, and Yana wasn’t quite sure if she was ready for it yet. She definitely wasn’t against it though.

Oikawa took his opportunity to take a good look at her face. Even in the moonlight her eyes seemed to speak volumes. Brown eyes were common but not hers. Even if for five seconds, the emotions held inside resonated with him. Perhaps he was just projecting his own emotions on to her but even so. He couldn’t look away. Oikawa had come to terms with his feelings long ago and resolved himself to be rejected if he asked her out.

The pair were under the stars at one in the morning and wearing the most unflattering pajamas they both owned. It wasn’t the typical kind of romantic, but it had its own charms. With no one but the moon and stars as their witness, Oikawa ever so slowly inched his lips closer to hers…


	41. GG

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kisses  
> Fun times with cats and owls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is it homeless or naked?
> 
> Enjoy!

Yana put two fingers between their lips to stop the kiss. “W-wait… Can you give me some time?” She blushed.

Oikawa pulled away and tried to keep his disappointed expression off his face. “Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself there.” He managed to untangle himself and moved to sit by her left. “I-I uh…” Oikawa didn’t know where he was originally going with his sentence so instead, he pursed his lips and didn’t say anything.

Yana sat up. “Sorry…”

He gave her a smile that was faker than plastic. “No! You have nothing to be sorry about. I get it if you don’t like me and…yeah. I should be sorry for making it awkward!” He tried to laugh it off and succeeded to some extent. “I should have known you liked someone else.”

Yana shook her head “That’s not it at all!” She fidgeted in place before she looked up at the moon. “It’s not that I don’t like you. But I just need some time to think about it.” she pulled her legs close to her chest and rested her head on her knees. “It’s just a little scary… going straight into a relationship again.”

“Oh.” _I should have considered that._ Oikawa internally facepalmed. _Of course, she would be hesitant. Her last relationship was toxic and resulted in a crazy ex._ As he reflected on his actions there were a few similarities between himself and Iseri. They were both captains of the Boys’ Volleyball Team. They were both in the same grade, same eye color and they both managed to make her feel like she was worth something. _But I'm not him…_

Yana knew that Oikawa and Iseri were two very, very different people and she knew that comparing the two was unfair and insulting to Oikawa. She wanted to say yes. But she didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes as last time. Yana gave him an apologetic smile. “Will you give me a day or two? I promise I’ll have a reply by then.”

Oikawa sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, he knew that she had given him the best possible answer considering the outcome of the night. “Ok then. I’ll be waiting.” There was an awkward silence.

“Oikaw-”

Oikawa stood up and stretched. “Let’s bring you home”

**_-_ ** **\----ONE HOUR LATER-----**

After taking his shower Oikawa snuggled into his futon. He had dropped off Yana back at her home but the walk there was painfully awkward. She didn’t outright reject him, which was good, but she didn’t exactly agree to date him. It was the best possible compromise he could hope for. It meant there was still a chance. The only problem was, until she gave him a response it would feel a little weird around her. Oikawa groaned into his pillow. _Thank goodness it’s the weekend._

\------

As soon as Yana came back home, she got ready for bed, again.

**_Yana:_ ** _KUROO ARE YOU AWAKE?_

**_Yana:_ ** _Kuroo!_

**_Yana:_ ** _It’s a Friday night I KNOW you are awake_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Chill, I was watching the climax of a movie._

**_Yana:_ ** _Oikawa confessed to me._

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Ok, congrats? Did you say yes?_

**_Yana:_ ** _Not exactly? But I didn’t say no either!_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _I thought you liked him?_

**_Yana:_ ** _I do_

**_Yana:_ ** _Which is the problem._

**_Kuroo:_ ** _how is that even a problem?_

**_Yana:_ ** _He confessed to me and I like him, I really do. But like, I’m kinda…_

**_Yana:_ ** _I'm kinda scared I guess_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Why? What did he do?_

**_Yana:_ ** _NOOOOO he didn’t do anything._

**_Yana:_ ** _just some lingering doubts about dating, cuz ya know, Iseri n stuff_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Ah._

**_Yana:_ ** _sorry I know it’s stupid. I should and could have said yes right away. The mood was perfect. There were fireflies and stars and it was really beautiful. But somehow, I couldn’t say yes._

Yana groaned frustrated with herself. She knew that this kind of opportunity would only happen once. If she did hypothetically reject him. Things would be awkward between them.

**_Kuroo:_ ** _It sounds like you need a day to not think about that. To clear your head._

**_Kuroo:_ ** _1pm. I’ll pick you up from the train station. We are going to the arcade._

**_Yana:_ ** _??? like over there? Tokyo over there?_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _where else? NOW GO SLEEP. It’s 3 in the morning and I expect to see you at 11am tmrw._

Yana mulled the idea over for a second. It was Saturday tomorrow and it’s not like she had anything planned. Yana looked at the project left neatly on her desk _. I should do that, but I can also. Just not do that._ In the end procrastination won out. _Yeah, I don’t have anything planned._

**_Kuroo:_ ** _goodnight shortstop_

**_Yana:_ ** _nighty nighty. See you tmrw._

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY AT TOKYO-----**

“Yana!” Kuroo waved to get her attention as Yana disembarked from the train.

Yana perked up when she heard his voice. It was easy to spot Kuroo in a crowd thanks to his height and hair. Yana was pleasantly surprised to see Kenma standing beside him. Yana went to hug Kenma first then Kuroo shortly after. “You’re both here!” she couldn’t help but smile, it was nice being near them again. It felt familiar and comfortable. Sure, she liked the Aoba Johsai boys too, but that was different. She had spent practically her whole life with Kuroo and Kenma. “So where are we going?”

“The arcade!” Kuroo put his hands together.

“You mean, that arcade?”

“Yep” Kenma huffed. You could see he was secretly excited about it.

“Is Kenma allowed back in again?”

“The owner changed recently so Kenma’s ban was lifted.” At the sprightly age of eleven Kenma was banned from coming to the Arcade by the owner. It wasn’t for destruction of property or bothering other people. Kenma was just too good and ended up taking all the big prizes with the obscene amount of tickets he earned.

“Oh nice!” The three of them hadn’t visited the arcade in years -since Kenma was banned actually- so they were all pretty pumped to go.

“Ah. But we have two other people coming along with us.” Kuroo grinned as the trio started walking. “They said they would meet us outside of the arcade. They were in the area, so we invited them.”

\-------

“HEY HEY HEY!” Bokuto let go of Akaashi’s hand so he could wave to the trio.

Yana almost spat out her drink. She knew that voice and iconic line anywhere. “Bokuto? Akaashi?”

“Hello Iwaizumi” Akaashi gave her a slight smile which made Yana’s heart squeeze. The setter was too pretty for his own good and his smiles were a force to be reckoned with.

“It’s been ages!” She hastily ran over to the pair excited to see them again. 

“We saw you last summer training camp.” Bokuto grinned. “That wasn’t too long ago!” Bokuto’s energy was infectious as everyone found themselves smiling.

“Bokuto. That was over half a year ago.” Akaashi deadpanned.

Bokuto paused and looked at Akaashi “Eh? Half a year?” Bokuto then looked to Kuroo. “Bro, it’s been so long.” He gasped. “Let’s not waste any more time, let’s go play!”

“Bokuto. You saw Kuroo a few days ago at this year’s summer training camp with Karasuno.”

The five of them walked into the arcade. Compared to the last time Kuroo, Kenma and Yana entered, it almost seemed like an entirely different building. They could list all the changes that had happened over the course of those five years. The biggest change of all had to be the atmosphere. There were rainbow lights flashing from wall to wall and the sound effects from the games seem to have been cranked up to max volume as they overpowered the pop music playing in the background. There were many more game options compared to five years ago, though that was to be expected.

Kenma’s eyes seemed to sparkle as he ventured around the play area. Eventually his eyes spotted a particular game that had been added to the arcade during the five years he wasn’t allowed to enter. “Yana!”

“Yeah?”

Kenma pointed to the machine. “It’s your most favorite thing ever.” Kenma projected his voice so it would reach Bokuto’s ears.

“Yana’s most favorite thing ever?!”

“No, it is not.” Yana gave Kenma the side eye as she responded to Bokuto. There was no way she was going to play that game.

Kuroo picked up on the conversation, he wanted in on it too. “Oh yeah, it is Yana’s favorite game. You should play it with her don’t you think?”

Not needing any more prompting Bokuto ushered her onto the Dance Dance Revolution machine. Yana cried internally. She hated dancing with a passion; it was one of her least favorite things to do. Why? Yana is an absolutely godawful dancer. At one point in her life she was enrolled in dance lessons. Of course, that ended very quickly.

Yana really didn’t want to go against Bokuto in a dance battle, she would most certainly make a fool of herself. She pleaded to Akaashi with her eyes to make Bokuto give up, unfortunately for her he just shrugged and let it happen.

Kenma pulled out his phone with a sly smirk. He was having way too much fun.

Yana was about to say something before Bokuto spoke first.

“Do you not want to play this game with me?”

Yana could have sworn she saw Bokuto’s hair deflate along with his mood. He gave her the most persuasive puppy eyes she had ever seen in her life. It was criminal to say no to them. _Damn owl._

“Fine. I’ll play one round of DDR with you” Yana conceded and promised herself that Kuroo and Kenma would get what’s coming for them.

Kenma pressed record on his phone as the countdown to the game began. Yana’s rhythm was off, and she moved with the grace of an elephant on rollerblades. It was honestly a sight to behold and Kenma made sure to record every single second of it.

The game went as predicted, with Bokuto’s score absolutely demolishing hers.

“Never…” She caught her breath “…Ever again.”


	42. A Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OTPs are revealed   
> Yana gets good advice from a good friend   
> Yana gets more advice from another good friend   
> Yana makes her decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What country has the fastest growing population?  
> Ireland, It's Dublin every year.
> 
> Enjoy!

A few games later Akaashi and Yana took a break while the other three continued their shenanigans. “So, you and Bokuto?”

Akaashi smiled softly and nodded. “It took a while, but we got there in the end.”

Yana met Akaashi during the volleyball summer training camp when he was still a first year. It was obvious from the start that there was some very intense pining going on. While she didn’t explicitly state that she shipped them. Bokuaka was her OTP and no one could convince her otherwise. Yana tried her best to make as many ‘coincidental’ meetings as she could for the pair, so it was incredibly gratifying to hear that after an entire year the two of them had started dating.

“What about you?”

“Um.” Yana was genuinely surprised that Akaashi asked about her love life in response. She was expecting him to go on about Bokuto or just change the topic entirely. Maybe having an outside opinion would help her arrange her scrambled thoughts. “Well you see, I like this person. And recently he revealed that he liked me too.”

“Alright.” Akaashi nodded for her to continue.

“But I feel kind of hesitant going into a relationship. It’s not his fault at all, I just. My last relationship was really bad.”

“Do you want to date him?”

Yana nodded.

“But you’re scared of what might happen after?”

“Yes” Yana looked down at her shoes. She shouldn’t be scared. Oikawa wasn’t Iseri and would never do anything of the sort. At this point it just felt like this silly irrational fear. Being confessed too wasn’t something to complain about.

“I may not be qualified to say such things since I'm not too sure on who this guy is, but I’d say take the jump. If you like him and he likes you then give it a shot. As you know, when I asked Bokuto to be my boyfriend I didn’t know if he liked me in the same way, I didn’t even know if he was into guys or not.” Akaashi waved as Bokuto started running towards the pair holding and giant stuffed owl. “You might find it scary at first, but I can guarantee you. If it’s what your heart wants, you won’t regret a thing.”

\---------

The day had gone as smoothly as they all hoped. Kenma of course, managed to use his tickets to trade for ‘Ultimate Prize’ which was -unsurprisingly- a new game.

Kuroo on the other hand, held three matching keychains. The first part had two graham crackers as its design, the second was a toasted marshmallow and the final piece was a block of chocolate. The three keychains were the components needed to make ‘smores. Kuroo handed the cracker keychain to Kenma “You can have this one because it matches your hair.” He handed the marshmallow one to Yana, “Marshmallow for you because you are the softest squish, and finally the chocolate keychain for me, because I'm the best part.” Kuroo winked at his unamused audience.

“Bro…that’s like poetic.”

\--------

Bokuto and Akaashi had left a little before dinner leaving the trio alone again. “So, what next?” The group had lost track of time while they played and now it was a little too late to send Yana back home. It would take Yana a few extra hours by train to make it out to the country and none of them liked the idea of her going back alone late at night.

“We can have dinner and a sleepover. Our families were planning on having dinner together again anyway.” Kuroo looked at his childhood friends. “We can bring Yana with us, I'm sure they’ll be happy to see her.”

“If it’s alright.”

“Yeah” Kenma took out his phone and sent a text message along with a photo of Yana, Kuroo and himself.

**_Kenma:_ ** _We have a +1 for dinner tonight! **[Insert Photo Here]**_

**_Kenma:_ ** _Also, can she stay over for the night?_

\--------

No sooner than Yana had walked in she heard Kenma’s parents call her name and pull her into a hug. “Yana, my baby! It’s been so long! We missed you. How are things over there? Oh yes, and we already called your parents and told them you’d be with us for tonight.”

Yana returned the hug just as happy to see them. Kenma and Kuroo’s parents both treated her like she was their own daughter. “I missed you too. Thank you for letting me stay over again.”

“It’s no problem at all! We still have some of your stuff here.” They released Yana from the hug and went back to the kitchen to finish off dinner.

Yana had forgotten about her ‘sleepover bags’, Yana had one in both Kenma and Kuroo’s houses. Both bags had her pajamas, toothbrush and an extra set of clothes for the next day. “You still have my sleepover bags?”

“Well yeah, it’s not like you were leaving forever.” Kuroo shrugged.

“Kids! It’s dinner time!” Kuroo’s father called for the trio.

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY-----**

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay longer?”

“Yes, I'm sure.”

“Come visit soon, ok?”

“I will.” Yana grinned and used Kuroo’s words. “It’s not like I'm leaving forever.”

Thankfully, this time there were no tears during the goodbyes, only the promise of meeting again in the near future. She gave one more overly exaggerated flying kiss before she boarded the train.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----A FEW HOURS LATER-----**

“Oh my god! Yana! I didn’t expect to see you here on a Sunday.”

Yana had just exited the train as a familiar voice called out to her. “Hey Rini, how are you?” Yana had never seen Rini out of uniform, or rather out of school at all so meeting her at the train station was a bizarre experience. Yana was shocked when she turned to face Rini. The only things that Yana recognized were Rini’s hair color and her voice. While Yana did toy with the idea of Rini dressed in a sweet Lolita style she didn’t actually expect to be right.

Rini had to walk over to Yana so as to not trip over her own pastel blue high platform heels. Her long hair was curled in twin pigtails and she was wearing a ruffled baby doll dress that matched her shoes. “I’m pretty good.” she straightened out her dress once she had reached Yana. “I just finished my cosplay shoot! Oh, and I somehow managed get a date with Aiko!”

“Wait what!? Really?! Did he finally catch on?”

Rini sighed and looked at her feet while the pair continued to walk. “No. It’s more like I convinced him to let me help him go grocery shopping. We are going together tomorrow afterschool.”

That sentence alone broke Yana’s soul. “Are you alright?”

Rini pepped herself up faster than she fell. “I’m great. There is always next time.” Rini huffed with newfound determination. ‘While I still breathe, I hope!” It was admirable. “Guys are so much work” She pouted. “They can be so…so yes, but at the same time, like no. Stop doing that to my heart.”

“Oh, trust me I know, Oikawa is such a pain in the ass sometimes and we aren’t even dating, but sometimes he comes up with the cutest things. Like fireflies? I mentioned that like once th-” Yana stopped mid-sentence. Her mouth had ended up running and did not stop till it was too late.

“I knew it!” Rini squealed, delighted that she was right about her prediction. “May I just say, Fireflies?! Do you know how super adorable that is!?” Rini held Yana’s hands and shook them. “How long have you been dating? When did you start? Who made the first move? First base?” She wriggled her eyebrows “Or further ohohoho, how scandalous.”

“We aren’t dating.”

“But why?! You should ask him then!” Rini pouted. It was obvious there was more to Yana’s story than she let on.

“No, I'm not going to ask him!”

Rini paused for a moment as her mind went through all the fanfic scenarios she could think of. You may think it silly to compare fanfic romances to real life romance but there were some similarities that couldn’t be denied. It wasn’t even a moment later when she found her answer “Oh my gosh. He asked you, didn’t he?!”

Yana didn’t say anything.

“Oh my god. He did.” Rini shook Yana’s hands up and down with more gusto than necessary. “But, why aren’t you dating yet? You didn’t reject him, right?”

Yana gave Rini the very simplified version. “My past relationship went badly. My ex kind of put me off a little.” Yana didn’t really want to share all the details of her ‘experience’ with Rini. It wasn’t something Yana enjoyed bringing up, so she kept it short.

Rini puffed up her cheeks before she let go of Yana’s hands. “I think you need to hear this then.” Rini stood up on a nearby bench and cleared her throat. “DON’T LET THAT EX MESS YOUR FUTURE UP LIKE THAT! THAT MEANS HE WON! NO GIRL YOU ARE BETTER THAN THAT! JUST BECAUSE HE MADE YOU FEEL UNEASY DOESN’T MEAN YOU HAVE TO COWER TO THAT FEELING! YOU WILL HAVE BETTER RELATIONSHIPS! SCREW THAT DIRTBAG! GO GET YOUR MAN!” Rini seemed to get louder the longer she talked.

“Rini, shh.” Yana looked around at the spectators who had come to see what the commotion was about. “You’re being too loud.”

Rini ignored Yana’s protests and stood taller than before. “NEVER FORGET…” Rini pointed at Yana “…YOU ARE A QUEEN!”

Yana covered her bright red face with her hands and let out a long high-pitched whine. _Please end me._ While Rini’s speech was very uplifting and appreciated, Yana just wished Rini would have chosen a better time and place. Yana was standing in the middle of the square with a little Lolita girl shouting that Yana was a queen. Yana couldn’t express in words how incredibly embarrassed but flattered she was.

Rini didn’t even bother hiding her shit eating grin. “I’ll break the kneecaps of anyone who says otherwise!” A breeze a little stronger than usual blew at Rini’s dress causing her to squeak and jump off the bench.

Yana quickly caught Rini from the jump. There was no way Rini was going to land safely while she was wearing those heels. In her haste Yana had misjudged the direction Rini was leaning to and the pair fell flat on their rumps. “Oww…”

Rini’s shoulders started shaking in silent laughter before she burst out in infectious giggles. Yana wasn’t sure why she found herself laughing so hard but once she started, she couldn’t stop. It was laughter that Yana felt in her lungs, so hard that it took her breath away. To the onlookers the pair probably looked like they were crazy, but for Yana, this laughter created a small vacation. A blessed relief from the earlier distress that shoved its way into her brain, it was that moment where her doubts were dispelled. Yana knew exactly what she was going to do.

“Thanks, Rini.”

“No problem. I want to be the Maid-of-Honor though.”

\-------

Yana pulled out her phone and started walking.

**_Yana:_ ** _Meet me there in 20mins_


	43. At The Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet up  
> Yana's decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is the difference between snowmen and snowwomen?  
> Snowballs!
> 
> Happy reading!

Oikawa sighed for the fourth time in the past hour. He had decided to use some of his free time to coach at the ‘Lil Tykes Volleyball Classroom’. He always enjoyed helping the students with volleyball, he wanted to share how much he loved the sport to the other students who were willing to put time into practice. It was always so heart warming every time the kids would get excited about doing a particular drill correctly. Unfortunately for him, despite trying to take his mind of what happened that Friday night he couldn’t help but remember the rejection. _Why did I do that? What on earth was I thinking? Oh, the cringe it hurts._

One of the kids tapped Oikawa’s hand, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Are you alright?”

“You can go home if you need to rest, you were here all day yesterday.” One of the older coaches pointed out.

“No, no. I'm just perfect.” Oikawa gave him a quick thumbs up then continued to help teach the kids.

The coach didn’t believe a single word of what he just said. There was obviously something bothering the usually cheery boy. “Well, if you need something let me know. Even the some of the kids seem to be getting worried about you."

“Sorry I didn’t mean to inconvenience you like that.” Oikawa ruffled the back of his hair a little embarrassed for himself. He was so out of it that even the kids were worried. It had been perhaps twenty minutes when Oikawa heard a ping from his phone.

 **_Yana:_ ** _Meet me there in 20mins_

Oikawa hadn’t heard anything from Yana in two days. Honestly those two days drove him crazy. Hours of speculation had taken a lot out of him. _There?_ “The meadow” he mumbled quietly to himself. “Coa-”

The coach simply nodded at Oikawa then waved him away. _Whoever that was must be really important to him._

\--------

Oikawa was about thirty to thirty-five minutes away from the meadow, but if he were to run then maybe, maybe, he could make it there in twenty. Oikawa wasn’t quite sure if he could run the entire way or if his estimate was right at all, but at the very least he could try. The message was fairly cryptic, but he knew that it meant that she had an answer for him.

If Oikawa was being honest, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear her answer. However, wanting and needing were two different things. He needed to know. He couldn’t spend his waking moments with his mind wandering back to that night and trying to guess her choice. She had already revealed the feelings were mutual but if she wasn’t ready then she wasn’t ready.

In the hot midday sun Oikawa could hear his own footsteps hitting hard on the dusty pavement as he began his run to the meet up spot. His breath was out of rhythm but even so, he still kept up his reckless pace.

\--------

Yana slowly made her way to the meadow. She was only fifteen-ish minutes away if she were to walk. She had already imagined countless scenarios of how the meeting would go. What would she say, what would she do and what the outcome would be. Yana hoped that the result would be a happy one, but she was faintly aware of the small chance of it going wrong. _What if he didn’t come?_ Even if there was just an inkling of doubt, she would be wary of carrying out whatever she planned.

Yana looked up at the blue sky and the lazy clouds drifting through the air. _It really is summer, isn’t it?”_

\--------

Oikawa didn’t stop despite the burning in his lungs. He didn’t have that much time left to get there. He knew that perhaps it was silly to sprint all the way to the meadow, being a few minutes late wouldn’t matter if he were just to text Yana that he might take a little longer. But there was just something in him that really wanted to make it on time even if it meant running like a maniac during the hottest part of the day.

With each step he winced just the slightest amount. His legs felt like lead and his knee throbbed as he reached the top of a particularly steep hill, but he didn’t stop to catch his breath. He only had a few minutes left and he couldn’t waste them.

\-------

Yana stepped into the entrance to the meadow. It was through an off beaten track in the woods by the edge of the park. The path was obscured by the fauna making it easy to miss, but if she were to keep following the trail she would get there eventually. The rays of the sun glowed through the green leaves as Yana began to hum a song from long ago.

\-------

Oikawa was panting heavily as the sun continued to beat down on him. He wasn’t sure how long he had taken to get to the park, but he resolved himself not to stop till he reached his destination.

The leaves crunched under Oikawa’s feet as he ran through the forest entrance. He could hear the wind shake the leaves and felt it tousle his brown locks. Once he made it out of the other side of the path he drank in the view before him. The patches of flowers that were once a variation of muted purples and blues now sprouted in a frenzy of colors. It was a beautiful assortment from the rainbow. He heard birds as they twittered and chirped in the branches and a soft humming that joined their song. In the middle of the meadow, amidst the splash of flowers stood Yana.

As if noticing her presence, she turned to face him.

“Oikawa! Woah, you look awful are you ok?” Yana was about to make her way beside him when he held his hand up to stop her.

“Give me, a second. I just ran" Oikawa wheezed as he tried to keep his breathing under control. After a few good seconds, he stood straight up again. His breathing was still a little ragged but overall, he had calmed it down to a reasonable pace. “Please tell me what you have to say.”

Yana screamed internally. She thought she was prepared but apparently she wasn’t as prepared as she thought. “So... Uh.” She fiddled with a leaf that had flown into her hand. “I have my response to your confession on Friday.” Yana let go of the leaf and clenched her hands tightly behind her back. “If it’s alright. I’d like to be your girlfriend.” Yana’s face turned as red as the flowers around her.

Oikawa let out a long exhale and plopped down on his back right where he stood.

“Oikawa?!” Yana rushed over to him worried something might have happened. As soon as she got there she was greeted with his relieved smile.

“I was really worried you might have considered saying no.” Oikawa let out a long sigh. “I’d be really happy if you became my girlfriend.” His ears burned pink as he couldn’t stop his smile. All of a sudden, the air seemed sweeter, the weather seemed nicer and the world seemed prettier. _How cliché._

\------

“Bye! See you tomorrow Konpeito-chan!” Oikawa dropped her off at her house before dinner time. As soon as Yana had entered the house Oikawa immediately ran next door to Hajime’s house.

Hajime was the one who opened the door to let Oikawa in. “What do you ne-”

“IWA-CHAN!” Oikawa practically tackled Hajime in his excitement to get in.

“What the hell Shittykawa?!” Hajime stood himself back up and closed the front door.

“Yana-chan said yes! Yana-chan agreed to be my girlfriend!” Oikawa bounded around the room, elated at the turn of events.

Hajime stopped to process everything. “You’re saying. That you and Yana are dating now?”

“Yep!” Oikawa held out two peace signs and winked.

Hajime continued. “My cousin and childhood friend are dating.” Hajime put his hands together then brought them to his mouth. “Oh god I might actually become related to you” It’s not that Hajime was against the relationship; it was none of his business who she chose to date and had it nothing to do with him. And if he was being completely honest, he wasn’t really all that surprised. He just really hoped that Yana wouldn’t talk exclusively about Oikawa and how ‘great’ he was. He had heard more than enough of that from the fangirls.

“Congratulations.” Hajime deadpanned. He could only hope for the best.

\-------

Yana flopped down on her bed face down and internally fangirled. Oikawa was her boyfriend. They were dating. That just seemed so surreal to her, especially since she didn’t want anything to do with him at first.

 **_Yana:_ ** _Guys, I’m dating Oikawa._

 **_Kenma:_ ** _Who?_

 **_Kuroo:_ ** _Oh? You decided to agree. Nice :D_

 **_Kenma:_ ** _what am I missing here?_

 **_Kuroo:_ ** _Little Yana had a crush on someone and now they are dating_

 **_Kenma:_ ** _Oh, Nice. ‘Grats._

 **_Kenma:_ ** _Wait. Is this the alien guy?_

 **_Yana:_ ** _yeah that guy._

 **_Kuroo:_ ** _Lol_

 **_Kenma:_ ** _no tinfoil hats._

 **_Yana:_ ** _lol alrighty._

 **_Kuroo:_ ** _If anything, bad happens let us know. Got it?_

 **_Yana:_ ** _I promise._

_**Yana:** Anyway. Bedtime for all of us._

_**Yana:** Nighty nighty <3 Sweet dreams _

_**Kuroo:** You too_

_**Kenma:** Goodnight_

Yana put down her phone with a smile. She knew they always had her back and that itself reassured her. Yana wasn't sure what would happen tomorrow but she had a feeling it would be a good day.


	44. Can You Pass the Eggs?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team knows   
> A mysterious name  
> Grocery date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe if we all sit extremely still, Monday won't see us.
> 
> Happy reading.

Yana and Hajime both had to leave earlier than usual since it was their turn to unlock the gym. Thankfully, the coach had made it so that Yana and Hajime would open together so they both only needed to be extra early for one day.

After a little while of walking Yana spoke up. “I’m not sure if Oikawa told you already, but the two of us are dating. As of yesterday.” Yana paused awkwardly. “I just figured you should be one of the first to know. You are his bestie and childhood friend after all.” 

Hajime nodded; He did worry what would happen to the team if the pair ever broke up but that was a problem for a different day. Oikawa and Yana had only just started dating so hopefully it’d be alright.

Much to his surprise and delight, that was the one and only time Yana brought up the topic of Oikawa on their walk to school. The rest of the chatter was filled with the usual mundane routine, it wasn’t bad at all.

**_-_ ** **\----AT MORNING PRACTICE-----**

The rest of the club members started filing in the gym. “Yana-chan!”

Yana knew that voice anywhere. “Yeah?”

“Good morning.”

“Morning” She smiled softly in response; Yana wasn’t really sure what to do now that their relationship had changed. Though to be honest, she wondered if it would even change at all. They were already really close so Yana wouldn’t be surprised if barely anything would be different.

“How are you doing?” Oikawa trotted over to her just as happy as she felt.

“I'm good, and you?”

“I'm great now that I’ve seen you this morning!” He chirped.

\--------

The rest of the team watched the pair as they flirted openly, it usually wasn’t that different of a sight, except this time Yana and Oikawa had this warm fluffy aura around them. They could practically see the flowers and hearts surrounding the two. If ever they could feel the color pink, then the scene before them was definitely pink.

“Do you think they are dating?” Hanamaki asked his teammates.

Matsukawa shrugged “A thousand yen says they are.”

“Do you even have one thousand yen?”

“Nope.” Matsukawa grinned. “But I will soon.”

Hanamaki snickered at Matsukawa’s confidence. He wasn’t wrong though.

\------

Kunimi and Kindaichi watched the four third-years flirt. “It’s all flowers and hearts this early in the morning. How gross.”

“I think it’s quite nice” Kindaichi smiled. “It’s nice and soft. Gives you a happy feeling.”

“Agreed.” Watari nodded in approval.

\------

Upon noticing his team’s whispers Oikawa turned to face them with both hands on his hips and his chest proudly puffed out. “I have an announcement to make!” Oikawa cleared his throat as the entirety of the team looked over. “Yana-chan and I are now dating!” He quickly made his way to Yana and gave her a hug then showed her off to the team as if they didn’t already know her. “She finally fell for the great me!”

Yana managed to keep her cheeks from blushing, but the tips of her ears were most definitely red. “Y-yeah” She wasn’t expecting Oikawa to just bluntly come out with the facts like that.

The rest of the team looked at each other unsurprised. “Finally.” Yahaba groaned. He had enough of the mutual pining from the pair.

Matsukawa smirked “Now you can be an idiot couple, rather than a couple of idiots for not noticing sooner.”

\-----

The Coach entered and pulled everyone’s attention. “Good morning everyone. As you all probably already know the next tournament will be the spring inter-high qualifier. It’s still a couple months from now so everyone has time to improve. Hone your skills, not only your strengths but also your weaknesses.” Coach Irihata gauged his team’s reactions and he was pleasantly surprised to see a determined look on all of his student’s faces. “Alright. Today’s practice will be free drills.”

“Yes Coach!”

The Coach passed Yana a clipboard with a small stack of unused paper on it. “For each player, make a training regimen that will help them improve. You don’t have to make it overly detailed. Once you are done show them to me for feedback. If it works then we can give them out to everyone. They can choose if they want to use it or not.”

Yana looked up at the coach surprised that he would leave such an important task to her.

“Do you think you can do it by the end of the week?”

Yana beamed; she was actually quite excited to be able to help the team in some way that wasn’t just cheering, analyzing and making game plans. Of course, they were important jobs too, but it just wasn’t the same. “Yes! I’ll have it done within a week.”

“Good. Oh, one more thing.” The coach pointed at a name that she hadn’t seen before. “You don’t have to do this one. You haven’t met him yet, but I have a feeling that he’ll be coming back.”

“Oh, um. Ok.” Yana looked at the name once more time then crossed it out her notes.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----END OF LAST CLASS-----**

“Yana! Aiko!” Rini bounded over and collided with Yana almost knocking them both off their feet. It was clear that the little blonde was elated. Yana had never seen her so happy. Yana was about to ask what had made her so excited till she remembered that Rini had a grocery ‘date’ with Aiko.

Yana quickly said her goodbyes, she didn’t want to somehow be roped into the trip. She had her own things to work on. _Good luck, Rini._

\--------

Rini hummed happily as Aiko walked beside her. While it may just be a grocery trip, it was enough to make her day. No, her entire week. Rini had met Aiko during her second year of middle school. When she first saw him, it started as a little crush, he wasn’t her type at all so she figured it would disappear in time. Rini never thought her feelings for him would last all the way to the third year of high school. She had spent all those years trying her best to flirt with Aiko. At one point she actually confessed but he didn’t understand what she was asking.

“Thank you for coming with me” Aiko gave Rini a lopsided grin. He really appreciated her company and the offer to help him. Looking back on it now he realized that Rini was always with him, almost every memory he had of middle school and high school, without fail Rini would be involved. She always brightened his day. Before meeting Rini he kept more to his hobbies rather than bother with people, but it was Rini who brought him out of his shell. Rini showed him how fun the real world could be.

“It’s my pleasure!” Rini chirped happily.

The pair entered the grocery store and Aiko picked up a basket for the items. He pulled out a list and handed it to Rini. “Could you read this all out for me please?”

The pair strolled through the aisles while Rini told Aiko which items to get, with each item they acquired they were both acutely aware that their time together was coming to a close. They laughed at their bad food puns and made small talk with how their day went. Despite it only being a grocery run, it was more enjoyable than the pair had initially predicted.

Aiko and Rini paused in the dairy aisle. “The last things on the list are milk and eggs.” Aiko went to grab the milk then tried to look for the eggs. It wasn’t long before he spotted them on the top shelf behind Rini.

Rini stiffened a little as Aiko walked closer. He was barely even a forearms length away, but he didn’t stop. “A-Aiko? What are you doing?

Aiko leaned closer. Rini’s body was between Aiko and the coolers. “I finally found the last thing I needed.” His voice was soft as he stretched over her.

Rini was certain her face was as red as the tomato in Aiko’s basket. “W-what?” Rini was swooning. _Is it finally happening? In a grocery store of all places?_ Aiko’s face came closer to hers and she closed her eyes. A few seconds passed but nothing happened.

Aiko stood straight once more. “The eggs were the last thing I needed.” He gave her a proud smile not knowing that his actions had sent Rini into overdrive. 

“A-Ah, Of course.” Rini barely managed to force her words out as she fanned herself. She felt silly thinking it was anything other than him reaching for the eggs. This was Aiko she was thinking of. Aiko was the densest person she had ever met.

Once they had both double checked the items, they went to the check out. The line was practically empty, and they managed to pay and go fairly quickly. Their purchases could fit easily in two shopping bags.

Rini and Aiko walked out of the store together, it had only taken maybe forty-five minutes. For a small grocery run that was a long time, but for Rini and surprisingly Aiko it felt far too short. They said their goodbyes, goodnights and see you tomorrows before they parted ways. Unknown to each other they both thought the same thing.

_‘I’d like to do this with you again.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm too invested in Aiko x Rini tbh lol


	45. King and Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yana meets a new team member  
> Domestic fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pay no attention to the elephant in the room; it's ir-elephant.
> 
> Enjoy!

Yana had planned on asking Rini how her ‘date’ went yesterday but she had ended up working on her little ‘club project’ for a majority of the night. _I’ll just ask Rini how it went later._

Yana yawned and pulled her jacket closer. Today she had opted to wear her club uniform instead of changing in the locker room. It was one of the colder mornings so there was no way she was walking to school in a skirt. Yana had woken up later than usual, so she didn’t have time to eat nor tie up her hair. “Hajime, do you think we can make a petition for tracksuit jackets with hoods?”

“Probably not.”

The morning breeze played with Yana’s auburn hair tossing it every which way. “That sucks, I could really use one right now” She sighed and let the wind do its thing. She could probably salvage her hair once she got inside the gym.

**_-_ ** **\----AT THE SCHOOL GYM-----**

“Oh wow, I don’t think I've ever seen you with your hair fully down” Yahaba circled her once. “You have really long hair.”

Yana nodded. “Yeah, I usually keep it tied up, but I woke up later than usual today. I thought I had a scrunchy or something in my locker, but I was wrong.”

Yana heard heavy footsteps stomp into the gym and a faint smell of breakfast followed. She knew it wasn’t either of the coaches, and since everyone was already in the gym there was no way it could be anyone else in the team either.

Curious, Yana turned to the sound as it stopped. By the door stood a boy with short-cropped blonde hair and styled with two black stripes running across the side of his head. Yana leaned over and whispered to Yahaba. “Who is that?” He was wearing the volleyball club uniform, but she had never seen nor heard of him before.

“That’s Kyoutani Kentaro. He is a second year. Oikawa gave him the nickname of ‘Mad Dog’” Yahaba raised an eyebrow. "He was pretty famous in middle school. Unfortunately though, he refuses to cooperate with anyone, but his skills are without a doubt the best in our grade.” He clicked his tongue “I am convinced he clashes everyone.”

Yana hated using Kageyama as a reference point but sometimes it was necessary. She didn’t really have anything else to compare to. “So basically. He is an angry version of Kageyama?”

Kunimi and Kindaichi spluttered somewhere in the background. They had been listening in on Yahaba’s explanation too.

“Something like that yeah.”

Kyoutani gave a brief glance though the team, his eyes lingered on Yana for a moment longer trying to figure out who she was, but ultimately dismissed her. He didn’t care enough to guess who she was. “Why the hell are the third years still around? I figured they would have retired already after that embarrassing loss at the inter-high tournament.” His voice was a little gravelly as he spoke without a filter.

Yana had decided that she really, really didn’t like this guy. He walked in like he owned the place, apparently didn’t come to practice for months and when he came back he had the gall to talk shit right to everyone’s faces. Yana, like the other third years, were absolutely ready to throw hands. Hajime was already rolling up his sleeves.

A lighthearted laugh escaped Oikawa. “You’re just as amusing as always, Mad Dog-chan!” Oikawa could easily handle the situation without the almost inevitable fist fight. “Kyaa, I'm so glad I was able to play on the same team as Oikawa!” He scoffed then his tone suddenly changed back to serious. “…That’s what you’ll think when this is all over.”

A shudder went through Kyoutani’s spine as he backed up and growled. He knew danger when he felt it.

Yana grit her teeth in a poor attempt to hide her scowl. She obviously couldn’t just start something now that Oikawa used his power move and solved the situation. Instead of standing around staring down the feral creature she left to take a seat on the bench and work on the assignment she was given. She was pretty much almost done. If she worked on it during lunch it would probably be finished by the start of after school practice.

\---------

“Is it true?”

“Yes! I heard from a girl who was watching!”

“No, I mean from the official fan club!”

"They think so too!"

“It makes me so upset!”

“But it’s so perfect don’t you think?”

Yana heard whispers as she walked down the halls. She wasn’t sure what the rumors were about, but she could take a pretty good guess with what it could be. Just as predicted, once class was over and she walked into the hallway a small group of girls stopped her.

“Iwaizumi! Is it true?!” The shortest girl furrowed her eyebrows.

“Is what true?”

“That we are dating!” Oikawa appeared behind Yana and shared a quick hug before he gave his fangirls a double peace sign. “The rumors are true indeed~!”

Yana's stomach did backflips as she heard his proud declaration. As giddy as it made her feel she didn’t think people would know about their relationship so soon. It was only lunchtime. _I guess that’s what happens when you date someone as popular as Oikawa._ She sighed internally.

“Does that mean, you guys are like, King and Queen of the court?!” The girl with wavy hair squealed.

If Yana was drinking, she would have spat, but instead she sputtered. “W-what!?”

“Oh my gosh, yes!” The third girl bounced up and down and clapped her hands. “That’s so cute! Well, other people might not take it well, but we definitely ship it!”

“Aw, thanks ladies. That makes me really happy. I'm sure it makes my ‘Queen’ feel much more comfortable too.” Oikawa’s voice was pleasant and emphasized the ‘Queen’ part of his sentence. He wanted Yana to play along.

Yana looked at Oikawa horrified at his plans. It was almost as cringey as the school cheer. She was about to ignore the invite to play but then she saw three pairs of sparkling eyes focused on her. Yana couldn’t just kill their fantasy, now could she?

“Yes, It would make me feel very comfortable.” Yana saw Oikawa give her a shit eating grin; he knew what she was going to say next. “My ‘King...” She almost cringed outwardly but held it back. “…And I, will be heading to lunch now. We still need to eat.”

Yana hastily waved goodbye to the girls and practically pulled Oikawa away with her.

\-------

The three girls squealed as both Yana and Oikawa walked away. They were absolutely elated at the turn of events. There had been speculation over what would happen but now it was confirmed.

“They just match so well. And when they stood next to each other they seemed to have sparkles surrounding them and when they spoke it was like roses would grow out of thin air.” The brunette fanned herself. “I could look at them all day.”

\-----

The rest of the day had gone similarly and after a week their relationship was old news and things were finally settling down. “I didn’t know you could cook.”

“I am multi-talented after all. Cooking is easy peasy!” Oikawa grinned proudly, the two of them had decided to get brunch together but they had forgotten to take into account that it was a holiday so most stores would be closed. They instead decided to go to Oikawa’s house to make their own brunch.

Oikawa served the bacon, eggs and toast. He spent a good long while staring them down before Yana came closer to inspect his cooking. “Oikawa, it’s burned.” The bacon had somehow turned grey and the toast was charred to inedible. Yana wasn’t sure how Oikawa managed to do it, but the eggs did not look like eggs anymore. To describe the plate bluntly it was a black and grey mess of what used to be food.

“Ah, Konpeito-chan, did you have to say it like that.” Oikawa slumped down on his chair, heartbroken at his failed attempt to impress her. “Please don’t eat this. Even I wouldn’t.” The smell of burning food soon filled the whole kitchen as if to drive the point home. Oikawa couldn’t cook at all.

Yana grabbed her fork, looked for the least grey looking piece of bacon and put it in her mouth.

“Konpeito-chan! You don’t have to eat that! Spit it out!”

The bacon -if it could still be called that- tasted more like a rubbery salted mass. It was an absolute disaster. The smell alone made her nose crinkle, but the taste was worse. Oikawa had managed to make the ‘bacon’ chewy and hard at the same time, but that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that it was greasier than usual. All of Yana’s mouth was telling her to spit the offensive item out but she powered through anyway. Yana swallowed then immediately downed a glass of cold water before she spoke. “It tasted awful as expected.”

“That’s why I said spit it out!” Oikawa pouted with his arms crossed as he began to throw away the rest of the food.

“I wanted to at least taste it.” Yana took the now empty plates and set them aside. “You tried your best for me, didn’t you? So why wouldn’t I want taste what my boyfriend made for me?” As horrible as the food was, she was touched by the gesture. The least she could do was taste it.

Oikawa blushed. To say their relationship was going slowly was an understatement. They hadn’t done anything other than hold hands, cuddle and an occasional kiss on the cheek. However, despite it all Yana managed to fluster him with just the little things they would share.

“We may not be able to salvage what you made but at the very least we can make something else.” Yana put on the second apron. “Tooru?” Yana managed not to stutter as she used his first name. The way it sounded on her tongue was so foreign, but she didn’t hate it in the slightest. She blushed and looked away unable to meet eyes with him. “Will you help me make the pancakes?”


	46. Mad Hatter's Tea Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team activities are fun too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I get older and remember all the people I've lost along the way, I think to myself, maybe a career as a tour guide wasn't for me.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Remind me again why we are doing this?”

“Because it looks like fun!” Yana had managed to convince most of the team to join her in an escape room challenge. It took a little extra thought but eventually she also brought Kyoutani along with them. She honestly assumed he would reject her flat out but either he was in a really good mood or he was curious, perhaps bored too.

“It does seem quite fun” Watari waved as he arrived at the meet up spot. The only people who hadn’t arrived yet were Matsukawa and Hanamaki.

Yahaba was about to send the two a quick text before they both appeared. “Hey.” Matsukawa waved, his occasional dispassionate responses were really quite something. “If we are all here, let’s go in” Matsukawa led the way with practiced movements of someone who has been to the place before, though of course that was neither confirmed nor denied.

There were four themed rooms to choose from. The group had chosen beforehand which one they were going to try but they were curious to see the rest. Yana took the pamphlet and began to read out loud. “Wizard’s plea. The Magic Academy of Thaumaturgy is under attack. It is up to you and your friends to make passage through the halls and communicate to the outside world for back up.” As cool as it sounded the team decided that for their first escape room, they were going to choose something that wasn’t too difficult which meant magic school wasn’t a thing.

The easy level was based on the concept of aliens and space. The participants were ‘scientists’ working in a top-secret facility for deep space exploration. According to the reports the astronaut had brought back an egg that hatched, and the spawn began to cause havoc in the facility.

Thankfully the room they had chosen was of medium difficulty and was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. The premise was that the team needed to save Alice from the evil Queen of Hearts. Their only problem was that they were all captured and would need to escape before they could save Alice. They had ninety minutes before time was up and they would lose the game.

Yana skimmed over the last room theme. While this one was also moderate difficulty it was based around the premise of escaping a torture room. Yana, Oikawa and Kindaichi had refused to do that room because all three of them were weak to horror.

\-----------

After a quick debriefing the team was let loose inside the room. The room was exactly how you would expect for an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ themed area. It was a beautiful optical illusion space filled with ‘magical’ clues that may or may not be helpful. The room itself was crazy. The walls were lined with checkered black and white wallpaper, the floor was a linoleum swirl of red and black and every single clock in the room was backwards. Items of every size and shape were scattered around in an array of questionable hints.

“Oh gosh.”

As soon as all the members were locked into the room the overly large grandfather clock chimed indicating the start of the game. Every student got right into it. Apparently, the fastest record that a group managed to win was sixty-one minutes. Aoba Johsai wanted to beat that.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----THIRTY MINUTES LATER-----**

Yana stared at a box in the far-left corner of the room. She rummaged through it and pulled out a tiny jar of cookies that said ‘Eat me’ on it. Yana placed the item on the center table with the other clues the team had found. When Yana couldn’t find any more clues on her side, she joined Watari on his area of the wall. “Find anything?”

Watari held up a book labeled ‘Short Fairytales told at Six’ and pointed to the bookcase. “There is a space on that shelf if I were to put this book in it but I'm not sure if I should put it in yet. It might be better to just wait.”

“Yana!” Kindaichi grinned and gestured for her to come over. “Look at this.”

Yana happily obliged and almost tripped on the slightly elevated flooring. As soon as she was close enough Yana saw Kindaichi had found a tiny cup but right beside him stood Kunimi holding an enormous bottle of liquid with the words ‘Drink me’ written on it.

The pair yelped when they heard something fall behind them.

“Shittykawa, stop knocking things over!”

“But Iwa-ch”

Hajime crossed his arms, “Go sit on the chair and wait.”

Oikawa pouted like a petulant child and plopped right down on the closest sofa. He spotted a tiny red button and naturally, Oikawa pressed it without thinking of the consequences.

Nothing happened at first till the room started shaking. What could only be described as animal instincts caused Kyoutani to hop to the side just as a large glass panel divided the two groups.

Kindaichi, Yana, Matsukawa, Kunimi and Watari all got stuck on the same side. The other side had Hajime, Yahaba, Kyoutani, Hanamaki and Oikawa.

“So. Uh… are we supposed to work together to get each other out?” Kindaichi looked to his other teammates.

“Probably?” Watari piped up a little worried by the turn of events.

Yana tapped the glass a few times, rather amused by the situation. “Cooperation solving? We can’t really talk through the glass so many be like intense charades?”

Matsukawa shrugged and smirked “We could escape first then leave them? Make it a race?”

“I like the first part of that. The race part though? Not so much.” Kunimi added.

\-------

“Put the clock in the thing.” Yana suggested.

“Maybe the teacup picture?” Kunimi added.

Kindaichi ran his fingers through his spiked-up hair. “I did both already and it’s still not working!” Kindaichi shook the giant dice, the sound of clinking teasing the team.

Matsukawa let the three play with the prop for a little while he decided to check if there was anything else missing. _We have, eat me, drink me, a table, a clock, a photo of a teacup._ Matsukawa frowned as he tried to combine the elements. He found very quickly that escape room games were always rather fun for him so when the team was going to go to one in person, he couldn’t just pass up the opportunity.

Watari ran over to the three who were huddling around the dice. “There is a dice sequence on the wall!” The four students scuttled to the area and brough the dice with them but left the cookie, drink, clock and teacup photo on the center table.

It didn’t take very long for Kindaichi and Kunimi to find out the pattern and slip the dice in the correct place. Yana picked up the new item that was revealed. It was a teapot. Matsukawa took a double take at the pot then at the table. “I get it now!”

The rest of the team on his side quickly crowded around the table bringing the teapot with them. “What is it?” Yana handed the teapot to his outstretched hand.

“It’s a tea party!” Matsukawa scoffed proudly at his mental prowess as she placed each item on the table. Earlier he had seen a photo of a table and remembered how the table was set. Matsukawa began to rearrange everything back to their designated locations. The heard a click and a large red chest with a combination code appeared under the table. “Matsukawa, best Kawa”

****

**_-_ ** **\----THIRTY MINUTES LATER-----**

Both teams had been working tirelessly to try to make heads and tails of their clues. They needed to get the glass wall up and rejoin the rooms so they could once again start on escaping the real room. After revealing the chest, Yana’s side couldn’t quite figure out how to open it. Yana had a sneaking suspicion that Hajime’s side needed to complete their mini puzzle first before they could open the chest.

While waiting for Hajime’s side to complete their project Yana and her team tried to look around for more clues. They couldn’t talk to the other side so the four just talked amongst themselves.

“I'm surprised you came up with an escape room idea.” Matsukawa flipped through a book for what seemed like the hundredth time.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” Yana gasped, mock offended.

Kunimi shrugged. “Well, you don’t really seem like the kind of person who would actually plan out an event.”

“Kunimi!” Kindaichi whisper shouted to his friend while Watari sighed and shook his head.

“Well, I mean. I don’t usually do team-based activities, but I thought that it would be a really cool activity for everyone to do as a team. I don’t really have any experience with teams, and I guess I wanted to try it out now that I am part of one.” Yana started strong then ended out mumbling at the end slightly embarrassed. “I just really like all of you”

“You… Yana you are so soft” Kindaichi gave her a hug and ruffled her hair. “We can all do as many team activities as you want.”

Kunimi nodded. He was rather surprised at her statement. Unlike Matsukawa he didn’t know the full depth of her statement and how much it really meant to her.

“Yeah, yeah. Very soft. Very tiny.” Matsukawa put the book down then smiled. “We all like you too, Miss Student Coach.”

As if waiting for the perfect time the glass barrier lifted and both sides of the team were reunited again. “Oh! We did it!” Yana grinned and managed to wriggle out of Kindaichi’s arms. “We are like halfishway there, maybe?”

Hajime nodded and held up a combination code. “We figured that you had a lock of some sort.”

“Sure do” Matsukawa pointed at the red chest with his thumb. “Have at it.”

\---------

Thankfully, the combination worked and the chest revealed an overly embellished top hat. “Mad Hatter’s hat, looking as fancy as ever” Hanamaki placed the hat on his head and struck a pose. “How do I look?”

“Oh yeah. So perfect.” Yana deadpanned as she gave him a polite golf clap.

“Ah, there is a note on the back of it!” Oikawa perked up and plucked it off the hat. He wasn’t very good at escape games in general, so he was having some struggles with it. It’s not to say he didn’t enjoy it though. Despite not being of much help he did still find the room fun. On the paper there was a picture of a teabag and a stopwatch. “So, uh… teatime?”

“Is that a code for something? Or maybe another important item?” Hajime looked back at the center table looking for perhaps something that would be of significance.

**_-_ ** **\----TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER-----**

The team only had five minutes left and they had made no progress on their ‘teatime’ clue. Oikawa fell to his knees in defeat. “Nooooo we won’t make it with this little time left. I mean look at the clocks!”

Yahaba froze. “Say that again.”

“We won’t make it in time?” Oikawa tilted his head but continued anyway.

“The other part” Kunimi clarified for him.

“Look at the clocks?”

The group had a collective ‘aha’ moment. “Hurry we have three minutes to change them all!” Hajime quickly ran to the closest clock in his direction and the rest followed suit with their own clocks.

“What’s the time!?” Yana yelled to the room with hope that someone had seen something of the sort.

Watari remembered looking at the fairytale book and remembered the title. “Six o’clock! Make it say six!” The team rushed to change all the clocks to say six o’clock then they heard the buzzer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out much longer than intended because I didn't want to split it up - a bit longer of a chapter since I didn't post for two days in a row lol.


	47. No Rest for the Wicked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tournament is coming up so the team needs to train hard :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Electricity is dangerous! Shocking, ain't it?
> 
> Enjoy!

A few days had passed since the escape room challenge. As it turned out there was one more clock in the room that all the members missed, so unfortunately, they didn’t clear the game. While it was disappointing it was a nice step back before the tournament training really began.

“Oi, Shittykawa, it’s time to go home.” Hajime crossed his arms and waited by the gym doors with Yana right beside him. It had been an entire month since the coach had given out the practice suggestions. Yana was pleasantly surprised to see the rest of her teammates had been following the rough timetable. There was only a little over a month left before the spring tournament and everyone was getting antsy, Oikawa most of all.

\--------

“Just one more~” He called back without looking.

Both Yana and Hajime looked at each other, they had a feeling this would happen. For the last few weeks Oikawa had been continuously staying behind later than usual to practice.

“Tooru, please, it’s been over an hour.” Yana sighed and held up his bag.

Oikawa puffed up his cheek in protest but still continued to tidy up. The pattern of staying back late and spending more and more time practicing started off small then eventually reached a point where he was disregarding the resting periods on the practice sheet. Since the coach had pointed out that the tournament was getting closer, all the members had been working considerably harder. Yana herself included.

“You know there is such a thing as too much practice.” She chose her words carefully as the three of them slowly walked home. Yana knew that Oikawa was working the hardest out of everyone. “It’s starting to take a toll on your physical health and soon your mental state will be at risk too.”

“Eh~ Yana-chan, you worry too much, right Iwa-chan?” When Hajime didn’t agree with him Oikawa looked at the pair stunned. He knew it was bad when Hajime didn’t take his side. “But I need to get better so we can beat everyone and go to nationals.”

Yana bit her bottom lip. “When was the last time you even had a full night’s rest?” She glared at her boyfriend. While she didn’t mind staying late after practice or almost all his being time taken up by volleyball, everything must be in moderation. She knew that Oikawa was overworking himself.

Oikawa wafted away her statement. “I’ll be fine!” He chirped, “Oh look, I'm home! See you later!” Oikawa gave Yana a quick kiss on the forehead and waved both Hajime and Yana goodbye.

Once Oikawa disappeared inside his house Yana and Hajime resumed their walk back home. “Do you think he’ll actually rest?”

Hajime rubbed his forehead, “Oikawa is a very stubborn person” He could practically see the repeat of all the previous years he had to drag Oikawa out of the gym. Hajime had hoped that Yana could convince him otherwise, while it did help a little bit, it wasn’t fully effective. Once Oikawa had zeroed in on his goal, he wouldn’t stop till he reached it.

\--------

Oikawa clenched his hands into fists testing them. His palms had angry red welts from the obsessive practice he had been doing for the past few weeks. He had to admit his body had started to feel the fatigue from all the hours he had put in. Despite his body telling him to rest he paid no mind to it. “I have to stay focused. I need to stay focused. We won’t lose again.” Oikawa practically dragged himself up the stairs and back to his room. The dull aching of his body was an annoyance, it wasn’t enough to be called ‘painful’, but it was definitely enough to be categorized as ‘sore’.

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT DAY-----**

During morning practice Oikawa felt like he had a foot in the grave. He hadn’t slept well the night before and morning practice seemed to be more challenging than usual.

“Trashykawa! Are you listening?”

Oikawa perked up to the voice, “Yes Iwa-chan?”

“I said, don’t stay late to practice. Everyone -including the coach- agrees that you need to rest. Have you taken a look in the mirror lately?”

Oikawa pouted. “I have actually, and I look absolutely glorious.”

“You really don’t.” Yana joined in the conversation. “You look like an emaciated zombie.”

“Yana-chan! You are supposed to say I look beautiful as always.” Oikawa clutched his heart in faux heartbreak.

Yana just shook her head and sighed. She liked him; she really did. But sometimes he needed to take care of himself more. She raised an eyebrow. “And you are supposed to take a rest day.”

Yana tensed as she noticed Oikawa’s face turn even paler, as if he had been painted in white. “Hajime, get the coach!” Yana scrambled to grab Oikawa’s body just as he crumpled like a puppet suddenly released from his strings. “Ah shit, you are heavier than I thought.” Yana wobbled as she held him up.

“Tooru! Tooru! Hey! Wake up!”

\-------

Oikawa’s eyesight blurred, but not because tears were welling up. His vision became fuzzy; then not even a fraction of a second later he saw nothing at all. Oikawa felt like he was floating in an empty space filled with thick static as his senses left one by one. He could hear his heartbeat pound loudly in his own ears as he felt his body be drained away. Everything disappeared.

\-------

The rest of the team hastily crowded around to assist her with the commotion. Matsukawa carefully took the unconscious boy from Yana and gently laid him down on the makeshift towel bed -courtesy of the other members. The Coach, Hajime and the school nurse came running to assess Oikawa’s body. Thankfully, since Yana had caught him, Oikawa didn’t have a concussion, but that wasn’t the main cause for concern. It was the fainting that really gave everyone quite a scare.

**_-_ ** **\----AFTERSCHOOL-----**

To say that Yana and Hajime were worried was an understatement. Yana sighed as she walked beside Hajime, she pursed her lips and made a face like she had tasted something bitter. The school nurse had told them that it was just fatigue and that he will be completely fine and functioning after he wakes up. Though he would need to take time to rest properly. The only problem was, both Yana and Hajime knew that there was no way that Oikawa would give up practice time to relax.

“Ah crap.” Yana stopped abruptly.

“What is it?”

Yana groaned and unzipped her bag looking through it. “I left my volleyball notebook in my club locker.” After confirming that it wasn’t in her bag, she waved to Hajime and made her way to the gym. “Don’t wait up for me!”

Hajime was about to protest but Yana had already left.

\--------

As Yana approached, she heard the sound of bouncing. Originally, she assumed it would be some other club using the court, but it certainly didn’t sound like there was more than one person inside. _Should I check it out?_

To access the club lockers, she didn’t have to go into the gym. Yana did consider leaving the sound alone but there was this churning feeling in her gut that she really didn’t like. The bounces didn’t sound like basketballs, or dodgeballs, heck there was far too little sound for it to even be multiple people. Yana’s curiosity got the better of her. She crept closer to the large red doors and snuck a peek.

“Tooru!?” Yana played with the thought that he would be practicing but never really expected she would be right. No, Yana might have believed she was right, but she didn’t want to be. Standing at the serve line of the court stood Oikawa.

“Ya-hoo~ Nice timing.” He flashed a smile. While he did look considerably better than earlier, he still didn’t look as healthy as usual. “Do you want to receive some serves for me?”

“What? No! Don’t you ‘ya-hoo~’ me. Tooru, what are you doing here?! You should be at home resting!”

“But Yana-chan, we only have a month left to practice and we have a practice match in a few days! I can’t just waste time doing nothing.” Oikawa held the ball still in his hands, his playful tone no longer present.

Yana cursed the choices made by the ‘Yana from a few minutes ago’. This would be a lot easier if she had brought along Hajime. “Look, I get that you really want to practice as much as you can, but you need to take care of yourself.”

“I am.”

“Tooru! You passed out this morning because you weren’t taking care of yourself.” Yana had tried so many times to get it through his head that rest was just as important as practice. But each time nothing she said had stuck.

Oikawa waved her away, completely unbothered by her words “That was just a one off. Besides, I have to work hard so I can stay ahead of the game and be better than Tobio-chan.”

Yana was almost speechless. Is this what all this hard work was for? His pride as a Setter and as a player depended on one sole person's defeat. “Do you even enjoy volleyball anymore?”


	48. Arrogance and Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Argument continues  
> Words are said  
> Y'all fucked up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did the paperclip say to the magnet?  
> I find you attractive~
> 
> Happy reading!

The question had left her mouth faster than she had time to process. Oikawa felt annoyance swirl deep in the pits of his stomach. Did she really feel the need to ask that question? “I love volleyball.” He hissed; the question offended him more than he thought it would.

_Of course he likes volleyball, what kind of stupid question was that?_ Yana smiled coldly; her eyes hard. “Oh? Is that so? Because from here, it sounds like you are doing this for Kageyama. Kageyama this, Kageyama that. Apart from just now, I haven’t heard you say anything akin to ‘I like volleyball’ or ‘I’m doing this because it’s fun.’ It seems more like you want to beat Kageyama rather than actually win the tournament. Why are you so fixated on him!? Is it not enough to play your best for you and your team?”

“I need to stay one step ahead of him” Oikawa, irritated, scrunched up his face. He distinctly remembered telling Yana about what had happened in his shared past, so why didn’t she get it?

“Practicing till you pass out won’t assist you in any way whatsoever!” Yana crossed her arms over her chest. Everyone else could see just how bad his obsessive practice was and everyone was beginning to get concerned for him. “You have beaten him already; move on from your one-sided rivalry.”

“You don’t know anything.” Oikawa growled.

Yana scowled at him. “I may not know everything, but I know enough to tell you that if you continue with what you are doing, your petty rivalry will consume you till you won’t even enjoy the sport anymore.” Throughout their argument both Yana’s and Oikawa’s voices steadily grew louder and broke above the silence.

“We have to win. We need to win against Karasuno, against Shiratorizawa, against everyone. I want this team to make it to nationals. This is our last year! Our last chance!” Oikawa was the first to raise his voice in frustration. “You wouldn’t understand. You went to nationals, you won first place, you have the title as the ‘Number Three Top Libero in the Nation’, you always win!” Oikawa felt repulsed as some of his ugly jealousy leaked out, but he couldn’t stop. “And the best part? You yourself said you didn’t even think of winning as a big deal because you didn’t need to work hard for that victory!” He glared at her with cruel dull eyes and a sneer plastered on his face.

“I wouldn’t understand? Excuse me?” Yana scoffed in disbelief her face switched to one of anger and hurt, “I am worried about you! Everyone is! This has nothing to do with winning or losing.” Her voice was hoarse as her volume increased.

“You are just so arrogant. You don’t know what it’s like to play in a team who had to work for their victories.” He let out a hollow laugh. “You aren’t even on the team! You don’t even step on court!” No sooner than he thought it, he allowed his words to spill out unchecked. _Shit._

It became a war of words and who could hurt the other more was the winner.

This argument from seemingly nowhere had spun out of control like a tornado. “You call me arrogant, but at least I'm successful. I have accomplishments to back up my arrogance! What about you? You don’t have anything.” Yana had freed all the stops. _What the hell am I saying?_ “Go ahead and call me that. Call me whatever you want. I’ll wear it with pride!” Yana had to admit those last words really stung. _He isn’t wrong though. You never do actually step in court to play._ _Are you really part of the team at that point?_ The darker voice in her head chirped. Yana’s eyes narrowed; she could feel her eyes glisten, but she held back the tears. Yana picked up her bag, this wasn’t time to stick around. “Since I'm not on the team I’ll be leaving.” She snarled. “I think we are done here.”

Despite it being a departure Oikawa could feel the tension and hear the intensity in her tone. There was a great deal of emotion behind those words. Oikawa slicked his hair back and crouched down. as he tried to process what just happened.

\-------

Hajime had gone to look for Yana after he realized that she had taken a bit too long. Sure, she said not to wait up for him, but it’s not like he could just leave his cousin. When he found her he had only caught the tail end of the argument but that was all he needed to hear. As soon as Yana left the gym he swiftly ran to Oikawa.

“Shittykawa! What the hell was that?!” Hajime grabbed Oikawa’s shirt and shook his still form.

“Iwa-chan?” Oikawa was a little stunned from everything that had just happened. “I messed up. I really really messed up…”

“Yeah! You think?!” Hajime let go of Oikawa. The only other time he had seen an outburst like this was in middle school. “Do you want this to be a repeat of last time with Kageyama!?

“W-what did I just do…” Oikawa went through the argument again. It started from something as innocent as concern and ended with him telling her that she wasn’t part of the team. “I-I need to apologize.”

“Then what are you still doing here!?”

Oikawa cursed internally as he scrambled to his feet and out of the gym. _Yana couldn’t have gone too far._ At least that is what he hoped.

Hajime watched as Oikawa disappeared out of the gym leaving all his stuff behind. “Why do I have to meddle this much?” He groaned and finished tidying up the gym before he picked up Oikawa’s bag and locked the door behind him.

\-------

Yana held her hand out and felt the clouds start to rain. “Really?” Yana rummaged in her bag in hopes of finding her umbrella, unfortunately she was disappointed. _Fuck._ Yana bit her bottom lip in a futile attempt to hold back her tears. She had resolved herself not to cry, she didn’t want to cry. She let out a shaky breath trying to keep it together, Yana was supposed to be used to this. It was normal for her to be rejected by a team; she spent all her time at Shōsha being unwanted by the club. _Maybe it’s really my fault they don’t accept me. I’m not good enough for them. I couldn’t contribute enough._

The rain started to fall harder before it became a downpour. The water had begun to fill the gutters and drains creating large puddles. The sounds of the rain and splashing was deafening as Yana began to run home, she only had a quarter way left before she would arrive. Yana was looking forward to a nice long warm bath.

Amidst all the sound, a single voice managed to pierce through it all. “Yana!”

Yana knew that voice, it was Oikawa. She should have stopped to listen, she should have stopped running, but instead Yana pushed herself to run faster. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say right now.

“Yana! Please wait!” Oikawa’s voice was desperate and hoarse as he chased after her.

Yana was considerably slower than Oikawa since she was carrying her bag, so it was no surprise that Oikawa managed to catch up.

“Let me talk to you! Please Yana!” Oikawa reached out and managed to catch her wrist in attempts to stop her.

A shudder ran through her body. “Don’t touch me Tooru!” Yana spun around to face him and used the momentum to yank her wrist out of Oikawa’s grip. “What the hell do you want from me!?” Yana’s face contorted to something between hurt and anger, but her eyes held an unspoken sadness. In that moment she thanked the clouds for the cold heavy rain that obscured her warm tears. “If you’re here to just rub it in my face then I'm not interested.”

“No…I’m not.” He cast his gaze to the ground. Oikawa opened and closed his mouth a few times before he found the words he was looking for. “I’m so sorry. I was just stressed and, and I know you were just worried abo-”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Yana’s voice held an air of finality indicating she didn’t want any more part of it. Yana’s voice sounded more pained than anything. There was no more heat in her voice, not even a flicker. Yana ran her fingers through her soaked hair and slicked part of it back. “I thought it’d be different. I thought you’d be different.” venom laced her last words. “But you are all the same.”

“Yana, please…that’s not wh-” Oikawa’s voice quivered trying to convey his remorse. There was a long silence where the pair just listened to the sound of the rain as the water soaked through their clothes.

“Even though I'm not part of the team I’ll still attend practice if that’s what you are concerned about. I’ll quit before the big tournament, since I'm not of any real use.” Yana’s argument had a dull exhaustion to it, like she had been over the same bitterness many times before. If the first part of the argument was a raging fire, then the last part was a frigid snowstorm.

“And about our relationship…”

The rain drowned out their voices and hid their tears.


	49. Faker than Plastic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after the argument

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did the blanket say when it fell off the bed?  
> "Oh sheet!"
> 
> Happy reading!

Yana woke up feeling like absolute garbage. Her eyesight struggled to cope with the daylight as she shuffled to the sink. Yana splashed water on her face to try to wake herself up fully. “Christ” She muttered as she looked at her face. Yana had trouble sleeping last night and her bloodshot and puffy red eyes were proof of her tears. “From far away it doesn’t look too bad” She mumbled as she got ready for school.

\--------

Hajime and Yana walked to school in silence. Hajime knew what had happened thanks to Oikawa, but he wanted to know about her side of the story. How she felt about the whole ordeal. He began to choose his words carefully, he needed to be subtle. “Are you alright?”

Yana looked at Hajime with the face of someone absolutely done with the day. “I know Oikawa told you what happened.”

 _So much for subtle_. “Yeah. I want to know your side and if you are doing alright.” Hajime tried to come off as casual, he didn’t really know Yana enough to guess how she would react to overly probing questions.

“I feel like staying in bed till the day I die.” Yana shrugged, acting nonchalant about the whole thing. “I’ll get over it though. Besides, I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

If Oikawa hadn’t told him about what had been said Hajime probably wouldn’t have understood what she was implying. As much as he wanted to tell her not to quit it wasn’t his place to say and he knew that even if he did it wouldn’t have mattered much.

It wasn’t very long till Yana and Hajime reached the entrance to the gym. They were later than usual but still on time, nonetheless. Yana licked her lips and plastered on the most convincing camera smile she had. At first glance it didn’t seem anything was wrong, but if you came closer and looked into her eyes anyone would be able to tell she was having a rough time, despite how good her fake smile was.

“Good morning!” Yana chirped as she entered through the main doors. It was a convincing act. If Hajime didn’t walk with her to school, even he would have been fooled. “I ended up oversleeping which is why we are a little later than usual” Yana’s eyes scanned the room before they fell on Oikawa. Unlike his usually well put together self he too looked worse for wear. As soon as they made eye contact his shoulders slumped and his eyes cast down in a regretful gaze. His mouth was set in a semi pout of someone who was trying to keep his optimism up. Yana immediately looked away; she didn’t want to see him like that. “Anyway I’ll go get changed, bye bye!”

As soon as Yana disappeared into the locker room the boys resumed their warmups. They all felt like there was something off, but it wasn’t enough to be counted as incredibly odd. Who knows? It might just be that time of the month.

“Iwaizumi!” Watari quickly ran up to him. “What’s up with Yana?”

Hajime wasn’t really sure what to say to that question. It was her and Oikawa’s business, not his and he didn’t want to sow discord in the team. “She’s going through some stuff” He tried to keep it vague and hoped Watari would drop the subject.

“Oh. I see” Watari knew Hajime wasn’t going to tell him anytime soon so he didn’t pursue further. If anything, he considered just asking Yana herself.

Practice continued as smooth as usual with only a few minor hiccups. Oikawa made quite a few mistakes, but they were easily rectified. Yana’s unsettled eyes glanced unceremoniously around and tried to avoid Oikawa’s eye contact. She instead clung onto her notebook and pen while she continued to assist the other members. Yana shifted uncomfortably every time she had to share so much as a few words with Oikawa. She continued doing her duty as a Student Coach, but it just seemed like there was a thin glass wall separating herself from not only Oikawa but with every other member of the team -excluding Hajime.

Yana’s conversations seemed shallow like she had suddenly detached herself from all the students present. It felt something akin to a business meeting. At first it was hard to tell, but as practice went on it became more and more obvious. It might have just been a gut feeling but it was still something.

At the end of practice Matsukawa and Hanamaki cornered Hajime in the storeroom. “What’s going on? Why are Yana and Oikawa both acting weird today?”

“It’s nothing really, just some stuff.”

Hanamaki raised an eyebrow and interrogated Hajime further. “You really can’t expect us to believe nothing happened. Have you seen the way Oikawa and Yana have been acting? It’s unnatural and the most unsettling thing I've seen all month.”

“Even around the other members Yana has been acting a little weird. Since you are her cousin and walk to and from school with her every day surely you know something.” Matsukawa crossed his arms and leaned in close to Hajime. “It doesn’t take a genius to know something happened between Oikawa and Yana. It was easy to put two and two together.”

Thankfully, before Hajime had to say anything more Oikawa came to his aid -not that Oikawa knew it- “Iwa-chan! There you are! I was wondering if you did the homewo-" Oikawa took in the scene before him. “Uh, am I interrupting something?”

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----DURING CLASS-----**

Yana and Oikawa sat knee deep in silence. The teacher -in good faith- had decided to allow the students to work on their project together. They were sharing a desk, but it felt like they were miles away. The air was so brittle it could snap, neither of the pair spoke. Whenever Oikawa wanted to say about the argument, Yana would shut him down. Only just yesterday they happily chatted and now it seemed like they had forgotten how. It took a few more moments of silence before Yana spoke first. Well, rather than small talk it was more one sided objective questioning. Once Yana stopped asking questions Oikawa tried to keep the conversation going. He would say something about the project or class and Yana would politely nod. He would try to put in a quip or joke but the result was a horribly forced smile on Yana’s part. From the outside it seemed like a regular interaction. However, everyone except each other were completely blind to the superficial conversation and plastic smiles.

\-------

Yana had spent her lunch trying to find the Coach, thankfully he was in his office -for once- so she dropped the metaphorical bombshell. “May I be excused from attending after school practice for a while? It won’t be for too long”

“Oh, Why?”

Yana rubbed the back of her neck bashfully and lied through her teeth. “Oh, well I’m a little behind the senior project so I was thinking of spending more time to catch up on everything I haven’t finished yet.” Yana didn’t say anything about the practice match, but it was a given that she wouldn’t be able to attend.

“I see.” The coach rubbed his chin then nodded. “It is important to catch up on your studies too. You can have as long as you need but do come back sooner rather than later.”

Yana thanked the coach feeling considerably more relieved now she had received permission. She could handle morning practice and class but if she was going to go through with her plans to quit, she would need to slowly separate herself from the people she had come to really enjoy the company of. The very thought of that made a sick feeling burn in her chest but she ignored it. _I’m unneeded._

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER SCHOOL PRACTICE-----**

“Where is Yana?”

Hajime looked around just as confused. “I’m not really sure myself to be honest.” He hadn’t heard anything from her, at least not yet. From all the time that the team had known her, they knew that Yana wasn’t the kind of person to be late without reason. And she definitely wouldn’t ditch because she felt like it.

“She won’t be attending after school practice for a while.” The coach entered the gym rather quietly, surprising the whole team. “She won’t be able to attend our last practice match either.”

“Why?” Watari spoke up, everyone wanted to know the answer to the question, especially since it might have something to do with why she was acting a little off during morning practice.

“She wants to catch up on her senior project.” The Coach didn’t say anything else and left it as that. There was nothing else left to tell.

The faces of the students fell, most were confused but there was one that was more pained. Both Oikawa and Hajime knew that the excuse was a blatant lie. Yana had told them a few days prior that she was ahead of schedule when it came to the project. Oikawa gripped the volleyball tightly in his hands. _Does she not want to be around me that bad?_

\-------

Yana sighed as she entered her room. Since she didn’t have to go to practice anymore, Yana wasn’t exactly sure on what she would do next. Perhaps she would actually work on the project like she said she would, but at the same time, she was already close to being done so that could wait a little. Yana looked at the two pictures pinned to her corkboard. They were the souvenir photos from the aquarium. No matter how many times she looked at them she couldn’t believe how beautiful the pictures were. Everything about them just seemed so magical.

Yana bit her bottom lip as her eyes started to water. She flopped down on her bed face up and her arms over her eyes, no matter how much she willed herself to stop, she couldn’t hold back the torrent of tears that came falling.


	50. Hotarubi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime doing damage control like a champ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first five days after a weekend are the hardest.
> 
> Enjoy!

“I miss her.” It had been a few days since the Coach’s announcement. While they did see and converse with Yana on a daily basis, it was different. It felt like they were talking to someone else who was in Yana’s body. This other Yana wasn’t at all like their Yana, she was far too perfect, as if she belonged in a magazine. “I miss the old her. The real her.” Watari was arguably one of the people who had spent the most time with her, so his statement had some real credibility behind it.

Oikawa mussed with his hair as he tried to keep up a smile. “Maybe she’ll be back soon!” He chirped with faux cheerfulness. “Whatever it is, it’ll be solved soon.”

Hajime threw a volleyball at Oikawa. “Yeah maybe.” He glared Oikawa down. Hajime knew that he had to do something because clearly Oikawa had no idea what to do and Yana didn’t want to hear any of what Oikawa wanted to say. He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Let’s just get ready for the practice match. I think the other school is already set up and good to go.”

The team huddled up for the first time since Yana stopped going to after school practice. Out of habit they waited for Yana to start the call out. No one said anything for a few seconds. Hanamaki cleared his throat, he figured since no one else wanted to say it, he would. They couldn’t just stare at each other all day. “Seijoh! Rule the court!”

“YEAHHHHH!”

\--------

Yana gave a quick glance to the clock and took a seat at her desk. “The practice match has probably already started, huh?” She really wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, but she felt the need to voice her thoughts out loud. “I wonder how they are doing.” Yana opened her laptop and turned it on. “Probably winning.”

\-------

“Aoba Johsai timeout!” The referee blew their whistle indicating the start of the break.

“Whaa~ They have us at twelve to nine.” Oikawa lamented; it was a bad start for their team. Aoba Johsai was already three points behind in the first set.

\--------

Yana typed away on her laptop trying to convert all the evidence of aliens into a word document. It wasn’t long before she had managed to compress all the information into MLA format. That should have been the end of the project until she found that all of their research only filled up three pages. Three pages were not enough to convince an entire class that aliens might actually be real. “I hate everything about this.” Yana rubbed her eyes as they stung a little from all the screen time she had for the past few days.

Yana began her mumbling while she scrolled through all the search results for aliens. Honestly, she was getting pretty good at sifting through ‘fact’ and ‘opinion’ which thankfully made the whole ordeal easier. Yana tried to avoid YouTube as much as she could because she knew just how dangerous the YouTube spiral was.

\-------

“Their Libero is a real pain in the ass” Hajime used the towel to wipe off his sweat. Aoba Johsai had lost the first set by two points. It wasn’t that the team wasn’t focused, they were definitely taking the match seriously, but they were only a few seconds off sync. That was something they couldn’t afford to be against their opponent.

“We can win the next two sets no problem” Oikawa grinned with his signature playful smile. “After all, we can’t just report to Yana-chan that we lost.”

“Damn right. We are winners.” Hanamaki snorted.

\--------

Yana knew she shouldn’t have done it, but she had clicked on the YouTube link anyway. She started off watching parts of an alien documentary but as time went on, she forgot her original purpose. As soon as the documentary was finished, she found herself watching conspiracy theories on the Bermuda triangle and pyramids. “Woah! Hold up.” Yana paused the video midway. “What am I doing? I should be focused. Focused on our project.” Yana eyed one more video, this one was about the trajectory and science behind rocket ships. “I could probably use this as evidence, right?”

**_-_ ** **\----A FEW HOURS LATER-----**

Yana had lost track of time as she dove deeper into the pit of the science behind rockets. Yana did start off working on the senior project but now she knew a questionable amount of rocket ship facts. She knew how they worked, when they were invented, and how they are assisted by the mission control center personnel.

Yana jumped when she heard a knock on her door. “Y-yes come in?” She quickly closed the tabs unrelated to the project, she was supposed to be ‘working hard’ on it and not watching videos on rocket ships.

“Yana.”

Yana was shocked. Out of all the people she thought might be at her bedroom door she definitely wasn’t expecting Hajime. “Oh, hey. You can sit on that chair if you’d like.” Yana pointed at her plain cream accent chair.

“Thanks.” Hajime sat on the chair opposite Yana. “How are you?”

“I’m doing pretty ok. Yourself?”

“I'm good.”

There was an awkward pause where neither was entirely sure on what to say. “Did you guys win the practice match?”

“It was a close game, but we won in the end. Their Libero really gave us a run for our money.”

Yana nodded politely before she decided to address the elephant in the room. “Are you here to tell me to give Tooru a chance?”

Hajime shook his head. “No, I'm here to listen.”

Yana was visibly shocked by his response. She wasn’t expecting anything of the sort. Hajime had come with such an earnest reason that she felt bad that she accused him of otherwise. “Oh, well. I’m not really sure what there is to say. It-it’s, Tooru is just so…” Yana leaned back in her chair irritated. “He is just so aggravating; he can be such an insufferable jerk! He is so self-absorbed and acts so high and mighty especially when it comes to Kageyama. He just needs to chill right there.” Yana clicked her tongue. “His childishness can sometimes be so hard to deal with but at the same time, despite his incredible abilities he -like everyone else- has his moments of insecurity but won’t let anyone know or help him!”

“He is so obsessive to the point that he hurts himself! While working hard is all good and well, he can be ridiculously stupid because he is clearly disregarding his health and that’s a dangerous thing to continue. He can be so obnoxious and bitches all the time and can be a complete little shit.” Yana dragged a hand down her face and let out a long sigh. “He always overexerts himself to desperately chase his version of perfection. He never thinks he is good enough. He is fighting an endless uphill battle against genius and he chooses to do it alone.” Yana pursed her lips and looked down at her feet. “I just…I feel so helpless.” Yana sniffled. “I just, I feel like I can’t help him at all.” Yana wiped her frustrated tears with the sleeves of her shirt. “That sounds so egotistical of me, I know that already, but still…” She trailed her last words then let out a single laugh. “Maybe he was right. I clearly can’t contribute anything to the team. Let alone Tooru himself.”

Through it all Hajime simply nodded along in silence. “You are right about the team not needing you, but just because we don’t need you doesn’t mean we don’t want you. All the things you have done for us mean something. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have the training schedules, if it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun in our last year before graduation. Without you, who else would convince us all to go to an escape room? What about Watari? You helped him improve his abilities as a Libero.”

When Yana didn’t say anything, Hajime continued. “Even the mishaps were fun. Don’t even get me started on that time you tripped and sent your food all over Matsukawa’s lap. When I got to use a volleyball to purposely spike someone in the face has to be my favorite memory of the year. I'm sure the whole team didn’t know how scary a spray bottle could be until you chased us around with one during the culture festival.” Hajime grinned. “I know the team will agree with me when I say, you are definitely a key member of our team. It’s just not the same without you. We miss the real Yana. Our Yana.”

“Trashykawa has said some really dumb things in his life, but very few of them he regrets. But he definitely regrets everything he said that day. He is absolutely all the things you have said about him, if not worse. Yet, despite his shortcomings he makes sure to share the happier things in his life. He wouldn’t shut up about your aquarium date for the longest time. He honestly gossips more than Yahaba.” Hajime rubbed his temples with two fingers. “He never stops telling me all about the little things you do to the point where it actually got irritating at one point. But that’s just how he is. He is callous at times and lashes out when he gets too frustrated but when he knows he is in the wrong he will try to salvage what he can. He values the people he cares about, that includes you. He may not say it outright, but he really doesn’t want to lose you.”

Yana sat in silence while her body shook in hushed tears. “That sounds just like the Tooru we all know and have grown to like.” Yana’s words came out as barely a whisper. Hajime was right. Yana knew that, but perhaps her own insecurities have been dictating her actions. She wasn’t completely innocent herself. She never gave Oikawa a chance to speak.

Hajime broke Yana out of her thoughts. “He’s still awake.” He didn’t have to specify who he was talking about; she already knew.

“Thank you.” Yana dashed out of the house not bothering to change or even put on a jacket.

Hajime slowly walked downstairs to see Yana’s mother. “Where is she going? It’s pretty late out.”

He shook his head and wore a rare smile. “She went to catch a firefly.”


	51. I Want...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yana goes to visit Oikawa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I googled 'how to start a wildfire'. I got more than 48500 matches.
> 
> Enjoy!

As soon as Oikawa arrived home, he immediately got ready for bed. He was planning on sleeping but he found himself falling down the YouTube spiral for hours. Oikawa had heard an unexpected knock on the door. He looked at the clock then removed his headphones. _It’s ten in the evening, why on earth would someone be knocking at this time?_ Oikawa shrugged away the sound thinking it was all just his imagination, it wouldn’t be the first time he started hearing things out of exhaustion. He settled back down at his desk to continue with the project, last time he had opened the document the project was at least three quarters of the way finished. He honestly was not motivated to work on it at all.

Oikawa twirled his pen in his hand as he replayed the events of the day. The team had barely scraped out a win during the practice match but if they wanted to go to nationals they had to improve more. Shameful as it was, Oikawa himself had contributed to quite a few of the missed points. Their opponents would only get stronger so Aoba Johsai would need to rise to the challenge if they wanted to even have a chance at winning.

Oikawa heard another knock on the door, this time louder than the last. At this point he couldn’t really write it off as nothing. The most unsettling problem was that Oikawa had no idea who would be at the door at this time. Hajime wouldn’t come this late without texting him beforehand and it couldn’t be his parents, they were out of town for the week and even if they did come back early, they had their own keys with them. He quietly crept downstairs being careful not to make any sound. Oikawa opened the door just a crack to see who it was. “Yana?” Oikawa was speechless as he opened the door fully and let in the cold air of the night. He shivered from the sudden change in temperature. Oikawa didn’t bother switching on the hallway lights but instead just turned on the dim lighting of the nearby lamp. Out of everyone he expected to visit, Yana was the last person he suspected, especially since she had been curt with him since the argument.

“Hey.” Yana stood awkwardly at the doorway fiddling with her fingers. She was wearing an oversized grey t-shirt and hot pink shorts. It was a look that's for sure, though it definitely wasn’t something she should be wearing out at night in the cold - for more than one reason.

_Did she walk all the way here?_ Oikawa noticed that Yana wasn’t wearing a jacket and quickly let her inside the house. “It’s cold out, come on in.” Oikawa couldn’t exactly leave her outside to freeze. He was a gentleman after all.

“Thank you.” Yana eagerly walked in to take shelter from the wind. She rubbed her arms to warm up as much as she could.

“So, what are you doing here?” Oikawa flipped through everything that had happened in the past few days and decided it couldn’t have been anything that had to do with the project or any form of schoolwork. He had definitely been keeping up on those.

Yana took a moment to collect her thoughts before speaking. “I want Aoba Johsai to win.”

Awkward silence filled the hallway. “U-Uh y-eah?” Oikawa wasn’t really sure what to say to her demand. _Did she come all the way here just to tell me this? It’s not like I didn’t know this already._ The pair didn’t move from the entrance way, so there was a slight chill coming from the door, but nothing too major. 

“I want our team to win against Karasuno. I want our team to win against Shiratorizawa. I want to go to nationals with everyone.” Yana furrowed her eyebrows while she tried to pluck up more courage to continue. “I want Matsukawa to hang up his jacket properly because it keeps falling off the hanger. I want Kyoutani to stop growling like a feral animal because that is not ok. I want Kunimi to stop yawning in practice because it makes me tired.”

Yana ignored Oikawa’s stupefied look and proceeded with her rant. “I want Kindaichi to not be too gullible because he keeps falling for pranks. I want Watari to continue evolving as a player because he is progressing well. I want Yahaba to stop trying to show off because it isn’t working. I want Hanamaki to tie his laces tighter because he almost tripped on them once. I want Hajime to stop throwing balls at you during clean up because it’s a pain to collect them again. I want to be part of the team because I love spending time with everyone.”

Yana took a step closer till Oikawa’s back was against the door. “I want you to trim your goddamn hair because it’s starting to get in your eyes. I want to have that stupid hanger with your face on it because it’s hilarious. I want you to stop wandering off somewhere. I want you to stop making Hajime so angry. I want you to stop making extremely last-minute plans. I want you to stop sending me selfies at four in the morning and I want you to stop being an idiot sometimes.”

Yana pouted and moved closer till she was less than a forearm’s length away. “I want you to take care of yourself. I want you to realize your own worth. I want you to stop with your unhealthy habits. I want you to be kind to yourself. I want you achieve all your dreams.”

Yana’s gaze softened. “I want to be of more help. I want to be more willing to listen. I want to be more willing to forgive. I want to get over my own insecurities. I want to be a better friend. I want to be a better teammate. I want to be a better person. I want to be a better g-girlfriend...” Yana stuttered over the last word making her blush bright pink. She had a suspicion that she would trip over her words at one point, but she really hoped it wouldn’t be that line. “I-I want t-”

Oikawa didn’t let her finish her last demand and ended her rant with an impulsive kiss. First kisses were supposed to be magical and time stopping. They were always described as tender, sweet and gentle. In books it was always a defining moment in a relationship. Yana had always imagined her first kiss to be something like that, but this kiss was anything but typical.

Yana barely had a moment to react before Oikawa gripped her waist and pulled her close against his chest. He moved one of his hands down and ran his fingers through her long, dark chocolate hair to add more pressure to their lips, deepening the kiss. Sparks few in every direction and the world felt like it was slowly disappearing around them. It wasn’t a chaste kiss, but it was instead open-mouthed and almost demanding.

Yana moved her lips in perfect sync, her arms loosely around his neck. They fit together like two puzzle pieces. Oikawa’s kiss was not the same as those in movies or books, but one steeped in a desperate passion. It didn’t hold dreams but instead held the promise of the here and now. Yana’s eyes fluttered shut. The taste of mint intensified as their tongues interlocked, as if there wasn’t enough time in the world to convey all their emotions. It was nothing like the first kiss she had imagined, this kiss was nothing so innocent.

After what seemed like an eternity they broke away for air. Oikawa and Yana rested their foreheads against each other and gathered much needed oxygen. A gentle flush of pink had arisen on both their cheeks which elicited a coy smile from his lips.

His voice was a small murmur that tickled her ear, “That’s a lot of demands and I'm not sure I can make that all happen right now, but I’ll do my best.” He placed a feather light kiss on Yana’s forehead then her nose. “My only demand is that I want to hunt aliens with you again.”

Yana attempted to hide her face behind her slender fingers; her cheeks rivaled the soft hue of champagne pink. Her head had gone hazy from the kiss alone, it was a miracle she didn’t fall to her knees right then and there. Her voice was quieter now and wobbled as she spoke. “I-I think that can be arranged.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It got a little frisky


	52. Uniform

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pre-match nerves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your problem is strategic. 
> 
> Happy reading!

Hajime was a little surprised when he found Yana waiting outside his house. Normally he would be the one picking her up in the morning. While it did throw him off a little, the upside was that they could walk to school at a much slower pace than usual.

Yana too had decided to wear her formal uniform instead of the track uniform. She did complain a bit about the weather, but Hajime couldn’t really blame her for that. It was a chilly day and her only protection from the cold was her school issued blazer and vest. Yana did add on black stockings and a lilac scarf, but Hajime didn’t really believe that it would add much to keep her warm.

“Do you want me to get you a hoodie or something? You can just take it off in school and leave it in the club room lockers.”

Yana shook her head, “Thanks for the offer but I'm alright. The nervousness is keeping me warm.” She chuckled awkwardly then paused. “It’s finally happening.”

“What is?” Hajime frowned at the sudden somber mood.

“Our last tournament.”

Hajime tightened his grip on his bag strap. “Yeah. Only three more days left.”

**_-_ ** **\----MORNING PRACTICE-----**

“I take it that the idiot couple is alright again?” Matsukawa pointed at the pair then faced Hajime. “Your doing I'm guessing?”

Hajime sighed and nodded. “I only helped a little though.”

“Mhn, alright. Whatever you say Cupid.” Hanamaki grinned. Teasing Hajime wasn’t always possible so whenever the opportunity arose Hanamaki was quick to take it.

“I'm not opposed to throwing a volleyball at anyone other than Trashykawa.” Hajime held up a volleyball threateningly.

Hanamaki and Matsukawa laughed as they avoided the ball. Rather than hitting the pair, the ball hit Oikawa straight in the face. “Iwa-chan! What did I do to you!? I haven’t done anything yet!” Oikawa protested. He winced “What if you damaged my beautiful face?!”

“I’d be doing the world a service.” Hajime deadpanned.

Oikawa wandered over to Yana who was in the middle of giving diving tips to Kunimi. “Yana-chan! Can you give me a kiss to make it all better? Iwa-chan is bullying me again.”

Yana avoided Oikawa’s hug. “Not until practice is over.” She blushed then pulled her focus back to Kunimi. The two had hashed out the details yesterday, they both wanted to focus on practice during club time so they would need to put that first, until the tournament was over that is. The tournament was only a few days away and neither of the pair had time to waste.

“My poor heart” Oikawa clutched his chest dramatically.

“Why is everything that comes out of your mouth stupid?” Hajime groaned.

Oikawa smirked playfully; he knew exactly what to do next. “Iwa-chan.”

Hajime cracked his knuckles then launched a ball at Oikawa. “Oi, come back here Shittykawa.”

“No way!” Oikawa ran around the gym dodging all the volleyballs thrown at him. “I have no regrets!” He laughed and ran, not stopping until one of Hajime’s throws finally hit him. Despite the serious atmosphere it was nice to have the ‘wonder duo’ lighten the mood with their antics.

**_-_ ** **\----LUNCH BREAK-----**

“Yana! Aiko!” Rini waved the pair down after class. Just like clockwork Rini ran up to Aiko, “Aiko, do you notice anything different?” She giggled; her eyes hopeful.

Since the grocery ‘date’ Yana had noticed an interesting change between Aiko and Rini’s dynamic.

Aiko answered almost instantly. “The new bow on your head is very cute on you.” He smiled and tucked a stray hair behind Rini’s ear. “Don’t run too much or you’ll ruin your hair though.”

Rini looked like she was ten seconds away from a fangirl meltdown but in a show of incredible control she managed to keep it inside. “O-ok” Rini blushed brightly and took out another lunchbox. “I-I also had some leftovers from this morning.”

“Oh, thank you so much! You’re cooking is really the best.” Aiko’s face lit up with an unusually bright smile. Though at this point it was becoming the standard whenever he interacted with Rini.

Yana cleared her throat. As much as she hated to interrupt a moment, the trio were in the middle of the hallway and were clogging up the people traffic.

“Sorry! I got lost in my own world for a moment” Rini fanned herself and began the walk to their usual spot under the tree.

Something had clearly happened during the grocery trip because Aiko and Rini seemed to have gotten considerably closer. Every single day Rini would ‘accidentally make too much’ or have ‘leftovers’, the pair sat much closer to the point where they were almost touching. _If this is what it feels like to be a third wheeler to a mutual pining pair, I absolutely hate it. Why don’t they just date already?_

Yana considered leaving lunch early so Rini and Aiko could have a moment without her interrupting, unfortunately just as she was about to get up and leave, Rini steered the conversation Yana’s way. “You are in a much better mood now. I'm assuming you made up with your boyfriend?”

Yana blushed remembering what happened that night. “Yeah we made up” _And made out…_ But she wasn’t going to tell Rini anything of the sort, who knows what would happen if Rini knew. “Was it that obvious that I was in a bad mood?” Yana thought she played it off pretty well, so Rini’s comment surprised her.

“Well, at first I thought it was because of the upcoming match, but then I was like. No way! Fanfics don’t work like that!”

Yana almost choked on her juice. “Rini, reality and fanfic are very different things.”

“Let a girl dream.” She pouted. “But anyway, I realized you seemed super awkward around him.” Rini looked up proudly. “If you had broken up with him there would be rumors floating around, but since there wasn’t any, it must have been an argument.”

Yana’s jaw dropped not knowing what to say. That was actually very logical thinking on Rini’s part.

“You should see the look on your face” Aiko deadpanned.

“Psh. What? I have no idea what you mean.” Yana hastily recomposed herself and pretended like nothing happened.

“Yeah, yeah sure, whatever you say” Aiko smirked proudly. 

**_-_ ** **\----DAY OF THE TOURNAMENT-----**

Yana tossed and turned in her bed. It was two in the morning and she really needed to sleep, unfortunately she was way too nervous to even quell her mind. Yana took out her phone and resigned herself to sleeping on the bus. Yana would probably have more luck sleeping on the way there anyway.

**_Yana:_ ** _Kenma_

**_Yana:_ ** _Kuroo_

**_Yana:_ ** _are you awake?_

**_Kenma:_ ** _I am_

**_Kenma:_ ** _I don’t think Kuroo is though._

**_Kenma:_ ** _Why are you even awake? Didn’t you say you have a tournament today?_

**_Yana:_ ** _I can’t sleeeeeep_

**_Kenma:_ ** _That sucks_

**_Yana:_ ** _Kenma -.- you are supposed to say ‘oh no poor Yana woe is she’_

**_Kenma:_ ** _The day I say that is the day the world ends_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _GO TO SLEEP_

**_Yana:_ ** _Oh lol, did we wake you?_

**_Kenma:_ ** _Sorry?_

**_Yana:_ ** _Lol. You really aren’t tho_

**_Kenma:_ ** _The thought is what counts._

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Why are you both like this?_

**_Kenma:_ ** _You are the oldest_

**_Yana:_ ** _Yeah, we learned it from you :D_

Yana laughed quietly so not to wake anyone. Talking to Kenma and Kuroo always calmed her down when she was feeling nervous.

**_Kuroo:_ ** _You need to win so we can see you at nationals again._

**_Kenma:_ ** _But what about Shouyou?_

**_Yana:_ ** _Shouyou?_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _Orange Chibi_

**_Yana:_ ** _AH! Hinata?!_

**_Kenma:_ ** _Who else?_

**_Yana:_ ** _Oof my heart_

**_Kuroo:_ ** _May the best team win :D_

**_Yana:_ ** _Pfft yeah yeah_

She had no doubt that Nekoma would go to nationals, so it was only a matter of if Aoba Johsai would win or not. Yana had heard that Karasuno went to the Tokyo training camp, but she wasn’t sure how much the team improved within that time period.

After a few hours Yana had fallen asleep mid text only to be rudely interrupted -barely an hour later- by her alarm. She grumbled as she dragged her body off her bed. She needed to be ready by the time Hajime came to pick her up. She stumbled through the room looking for her uniform, thankfully she had the foresight to hang it all up the day before.

**_Hajime:_ ** _I’ll be there in twenty minutes._

Yana cried internally as she checked her text messages. “Gotta be a person.” she mumbled. It took ten minutes before she was fully conscious. “Today is the day.” She examined herself with the mirror and smiled, she was pleased with the outcome. She made sure to iron out all the wrinkles on her teal t-shirt and white volleyball shorts. Her white whistle dangled around her neck, at first, she had trouble getting used to her student coach uniform, but after a while it was strange to not wear it.

Yana’s hair had grown quite a bit longer since her last hair cut so she tied it up in a side braid. She heard the doorbell ring. _That’s probably Hajime._ Yana took one last look in the mirror then shrugged on her student coach jacket. _Depending on how the tournament ends, this could be the last time I wear this uniform._

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER THE BUS RIDE-----**

“Yana. Yana, wake up.” Oikawa shook her gently to pull her out of her sleep. He did feel a little bad for having to wake her up, especially since she looked like she didn’t get much sleep the night before, but as much as he enjoyed her leaning on his shoulder, they needed to get off the bus.

Yana rubbed her eyes and grumbled. “I'm awake, I'm awake. Woken” She sat up, stretched, then wiped her face. “Oh god, did I drool?” She blushed, the tips of her ears turning bright red.

“You snored a little too” Oikawa added with a teasing grin on his face. “It made for a cute picture.”

Yana felt her cheeks heat up more and covered her face with the sleeves of her jacket. “Nooo, I'm ruined.” She whimpered.

“Well, we expected it because you looked like you didn’t sleep at all.” Hanamaki shrugged.

Matsukawa nodded. “It is pretty amusing to know that little Yana snores.”

Yana let out a high-pitched whine. “Please end me.”


	53. Unknown Variable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aoba Johsai v Karasuno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The best way to lie is to tell the truth...the carefully edited truth.
> 
> Enjoy!

Aoba Johsai had won the first match against Dateko, it took a little longer than they would have liked but a win is a win. Their second match was against Karasuno and the tension was high.

“Whaa~ the atmosphere around Karasuno is different.” Oikawa went to pick up a stray ball. Both teams were in the middle of warming up. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Tobio-chan who suffered a crushing defeat by my hands last time.” Oikawa was trying to pull the ball back from Kageyama, still not letting his smile drop despite the effort he was putting in.

“We are here to win this time” Kageyama refused to release the ball and kept pulling with more vigor.

Oikawa smirked and let go of the ball causing Kageyama to fall back, ball still in hand. “You were completely and utterly trampled last time!" Oikawa scoffed "And just like last time, you’ll have to step out of our way, Tobio-chan!” He laughed, proud of the stunt he just pulled.

Yana groaned and rubbed her forehead. “Tooru is supposed to be a third year.” She turned to Hanamaki, “He is a third year.”

Hanamaki nodded. “Yeah, he is a third year.”

The pair let out a disappointed sigh. In the corner of Yana’s eye, she watched as Yahaba bounced a ball towards the blonde girl from Karasuno. Yana groaned at Yahaba’s antics. _Couldn’t he have just gone to talk to her normally?_

Yana pulled Oikawa back on their side of the court by the shirt. “Use that energy to warm up.”

“Yes, Konpeito-chan~!” Oikawa gave her a quick peck on the lips followed by a roguish grin. “For good luck.”

Yana was caught off-guard from the kiss and the tips of Yana’s ears burned bright red. “I-I wasn't ready for that” she whimpered.

The referee blew the whistle to indicate the start of the lineup and pre-match huddle. Yana and Oikawa quickly stood by the bench. Once Yana finally had her blush under control, she began her speech. “I know I don’t have to tell you guys, but Karasuno is a formidable opponent. Since their defeat I can assure you they have all been working just as hard as we have.” Yana twirled her pen around her finger anxiously. She had shared the research she had on the Karasuno members but there was always a little nagging fear. _Have Iwe done enough?_

Oikawa put his hands on his hips and looked at his teammates surrounding him. “Exactly. If we let our guard down, they’ll eat us alive. Let’s go out there and start things off with a sizeable lead.” He pulled the team into a tight huddle.

Yana grinned and matched each and every member’s look of determination. _Yeah, we have given it our all._ She cleared her throat and yelled as loud as she could. “Seijoh! Rule the court!”

The team responded even louder, “YEAHHHHH!”

They broke the huddle and began to assemble on court. “Alrighty! I’ll b-”

“We’re counting on you, captain.” The team said in unison.

The Head Coach and Oikawa turned around surprised by the turn of events. Every member had full faith in their captain. “That’s kind of embarrassing but I'm really touc-”

Hajime pat Oikawa’s shoulder. “We’re counting on your serves at the beginning. If you screw it up, you’re treating us to ramen.”

“Ohh! Takoyaki too please!” Yana chirped as she hopped into the request train.

Hanamaki was next, “I’ll take a large serving of chashu in mine.

“I’ll have a side of Gyoza with mine.” Matsukawa added.

Yana laughed internally as she watched the other members ask for their own orders. Once the team took their positions every other sound seemed to cease. Yana crossed her fingers behind her back. _WE can do this._

\-------

Yana spun the pen in her hand faster as she fidgeted on the bench. She watched as the points were scored one after another with neither side letting up.

“They’re fighting on the ground right from the start.” Coach Irihata -in contrast- sat perfectly still beside Yana.

Yana nodded. “Though, it’ll be coming soon.” Yana watched Karasuno’s plays trying to come up with possible counterstrategies.

“What will?”

“That super-fast quick.” No sooner than Yana spoke those words did Hinata jump up and slam his hand down. The ball curved off Kindaichi’s block and skimmed off Watari’s attempt to receive it. Yana raised an eyebrow and watched closer as the third quick slammed down on Aoba Johsai’s side of the court. She immediately stopped twirling her pen and went still as a realization dawned on her. _Hinata can direct the quick now._

Before Yana even had time to ask, the coach nodded. Hastily, Yana stood up and held her hands in a ‘T’

“Aoba Johsai timeout!” The referee blew their whistle indicating the start of the break.

Yana handed the boys’ their towels as she began to speak. “Seems like Hinata, uh, #10 can control the direction of that super quick now.”

“What’s the plan?”

Yana furrowed her eyebrows as she quickly went through all the possible ways to counter Karasuno’s offence. “We can limit Hinata’s options.”

“Ah, I see.” Matsukawa smirked. “I’ll mark him.” As soon as timeout was over everyone got back into position.

_Well, there is something else we could do._ Yana glanced at Kyoutani. She really didn’t want to put him in yet because she was well aware of the possible issues it could cause. _But we can’t afford to hold back during this match._ Yana sighed. It was worth a shot. She turned to the coach, “Do you mind if I put Kyoutani in to shake up the pace if Karasuno makes it to match point before us?”

The Coach took a few minutes before he responded. “I don’t see why not.” He turned to face Yana with an amused expression on his face. “It’s your call.”

Yana nodded then turned back to the game just in time to catch Matsukawa follow Hinata across the court. She shuddered as she watched him jump, Yana could feel Matsukawa's intimidation from the bench.

\--------

Matsukawa groaned internally as Hinata crossed the court. Matsukawa jumped slightly to the side leaving only one option for Hinata to hit. _A line shot._ Matsukawa pressured Hinata into changing trajectory. _You aren’t going to hit a cross shot, are you? No, I don’t think so. You better not._

The ball was spiked straight into Kindachi’s arms, it was a solid receive. Oikawa set the ball in a clean arc to Kunimi who easily spiked it past Hinata.

“Mattsun, you can be frightening at times.” Oikawa chuckled then picked up the ball in time for his serve. “I can be scary too”

Oikawa spun the ball once before he held it steady. His face was lacking the usual playfulness and instead was replaced with an overbearing focus.

“Watch the back of your head this time.” Hajime put his hands to cover the back of his head. He had seen that look on Oikawa before. Oikawa was going to put the serve he had been relentlessly practicing to use for the first time in a match. 

Oikawa added a spin to the ball as he tossed up with a slight arc. He jumped with perfect form and slammed the ball down.

The ball was sent flying between Nishinoya and Sawamura and hit the ground faster than they could react. The referee held up a red flag indicating that the serve was out. “Ahhhh! Sorry!” Oikawa tousled his hair making quite a mess.

“You tried; it was close. Good hit that time though.” Hanamaki had only seen the serve in practice but seeing it in an official match was something different. The serve was practically a long-distance spike.

\------

“Twenty-four to twenty-three.” It was Karasuno’s match point. Yana handed Kyoutani the member change number. “I’m trusting you with this.” She returned Kyoutani’s glare with one of her own. She knew very well what could potentially go wrong as soon as he stepped on court.

“Aoba Johsai member change, #13 out, #16 in.” the referee blew his whistle again.

_Oi, Oi, seriously? Right now, Yana_? Oikawa struggled to keep a straight face as he made eye contact with Yana, questioning why she sent in Kyoutani.

She shrugged in his direction, _Worth a shot. He takes a while to warm up anyway. We both know that._ Yana liked to think that Oikawa understood her response but was highly doubtful.

As soon as the rally started Yana watched Kyoutani intently, she knew that Kyoutani wasn’t a ‘teamwork makes the dream work’ kind of guy but she hoped that just maybe he would cooperate.

Yana had purposely thrown in an unknown variable in a well-established working team. Whatever happened next would be on her.

\------

“Kindaichi!” Oikawa threw the set up at Kindaichi who was just about to jump. Before Kindaichi was even able to lift his feet off the ground, Kyoutani shoved him out of the way and sent the ball right into Karasuno’s side.

The team -barring Kyoutani- winced as they watched Kindaichi fall back onto the floor with a thump.

The referee blew his whistle. “Out of bounds. First set end. Winner, Karasuno.”

_That was clearly for Kindaichi, yet he barged in and hit it out. During set point! There are so many things I want to say but I don’t even know where to start._ Oikawa fretted internally, still reeling from the events.

Hajime however had no lack of words.“That was too reckless!”

\-----

While Hajime was busy scolding Kyoutani, Yana flagged over Kindaichi. “Psst, you ok?”

“I'm alright, it’s ok.” Kindaichi gave her two thumbs up. He was a little shaken but otherwise it wasn’t too bad a fall."

Despite Kindaichi reassuring her that he was fine, Yana still felt responsible, it was her choice to send Mad Dog in.

\-----

“Why do you only answer to him?!” Oikawa exclaimed when Kyoutani didn’t acknowledge his comment.

Yahaba sighed and moved closer to Kunimi who was visibly curious. “Kyoutani challenged Iwaizumi to plenty of games but lost miserably every time. That’s the reason why he only listens to Iwazumi.”

“Like a pack of wolves?” Kunimi replied.

Watari inserted himself into the conversation. “But what about Yana? He kind of responds to her.”

Yahaba thought for a moment. “I'm not really sure but maybe it’s because she is an ‘Iwaizumi’ too? This is all speculation of course. Don’t quote me on it.”


	54. Sharpened Fangs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aoba Johsai v Karasuno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did the coach go back to the bank?  
> To get his Quarterback!
> 
> Enjoy!

The second match started with another one of Oikawa’s ‘new and improved’ serves. While he did miss, he was getting closer to the line -if Sawamura and Nishinoya’s expressions were anything to go by. Yana started to bounce her leg up and down in nervousness. _Did I make the right choice to put Kyoutani in? Was I too early? Too aggressive?_

“Yana.” The Coach turned to her briefly. “Pen twirling is fine; leg bouncing is not.” He turned back to the match. “Trust in your judgement.”

Yana pursed her lips and sat still. She really hoped she had made the right choice.

\------

“Nice receive!”

Watari managed to dig the ball up from one of Tanaka’s spikes. He refused to let anything slip by him, this was the last tournament for the third years and Watari wanted to help bring the team to nationals.

Oikawa swiftly set the ball to the right. _I’ll need to calm him first. A toss should do it._ “Mad Dog~!”

Kyoutani needed no more prompting. He spiked the ball as hard as he could and cut across the net and avoided the three Karasuno blockers. Unlike last time, the ball landed in bounds. The crowd erupted with enthusiasm seemingly surprised by how slanted the spike was.

Oikawa was passed the ball, glanced Kindaichi’s way then tossed. This time around Kindaichi leapt to the right and allowed Kyoutani to hit the ball from behind him. In a poor show of self-control and spatial awareness, Kyoutani’s momentum threw his body into Hanamaki, almost causing another tumble.

“Are you alright?!”

Hanamaki groaned and regained his footing. “Yeah.” He nodded to Oikawa’s concerned question and finished righting himself up.

\-----

Yana covered her face barely able to watch. _Why? Why are you like this?_ As much as she appreciated all the points Kyoutani had scored for them she had hoped he would have developed a little more ‘teamwork’ mentality.

“Suddenly adding a member really disrupted the rhythm.”

Yana cried internally as she heard the Karasuno Coach point out the glaring weakness. _Yes, yes, I know._ Yana leaned forward and clenched her hands together. _Kyoutani, please be more careful._

\-------

Toss after toss Oikawa sent the ball almost exclusively to Kyoutani for the next few points. Once it was clear that Karasuno had come to focus on Kyoutani’s overwhelming presence, Oikawa set the ball up to Kindaichi.

Kindaichi leapt up as high as he could. There were no blockers in sight, so it was a free hit that he didn’t want to miss. With as much effort as he could muster Kindaichi slammed the ball down in his spike. The score was now six to three with Aoba Johsai in the lead.

“Nice Kindaichi!”

Oikawa watched as Kyoutani grit his teeth and went back to his position. _Mad Dog is really mad now._ Oikawa smirked. Regardless of Kyoutani’s reactions, Oikawa was going to bring out Kyoutani’s full potential and make sure that the dog’s bite was stronger than it's bark.

\------

As the match went on, Kyoutani’s spikes only got more aggressive. Yana switched between watching Karasuno and Aoba Johsai. From what she could tell Karasuno hadn’t yet caught on to how Aoba Johsai was regulating Hinata’s attacks.

\-------

“Get the last ball!” Hanamaki covered the pass and sent it towards Kyoutani who was already in a spiking position. “Careful it’s close to the net!”

“Three-man block!” Watari called out from behind as he noticed Sawamura, Hinata and Tanaka ready to intercept the hit.

\-----

_If he spikes it now, it’ll definitely get blocked._ Before she realized it, Yana found herself yelling. “Tip it past the block!” No matter how much yelled it was too late. The ball -as predicted- was blocked and bounced off Sawamura’s hands to the ground.

Yana dragged her hands down her face. She saw it coming, she knew it was coming. “Why didn’t you tip it! You know how to tip it!” Yana lamented as she felt personally hurt by that failed attempt.

“Ah, what a clean swing” Yahaba added the final blow to Yana's self torment.

“But if I don’t hit it at full strength, I won’t feel satisfied!” Kyoutani growled.

It was that moment Yana might have almost cried or perhaps given him a lecture. She knew that Kyoutani was a double-edged sword, but she really hoped it would be more in Aoba Johsai’s favor. 

Yana was worried when Karasuno suddenly called in a member change, however despite Karasuno switching in Sugawara they weren’t able to completely catch up. Sugawara had temporarily stopped Kyoutani from spiking with impressive ball placement, but it wasn’t enough.

Thankfully, her gamble paid off. It was twenty-four to nineteen with Aoba Johsai in the lead. The second set was practically theirs.

The referee blew his whistle “Karasuno, member change, #12 in, #11 out.”

Yana looked up abruptly. She wasn’t expecting Karasuno to bring in a pinch server during the match point. _Yamaguchi, was it?_ Yana furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to remember the name of #12. Yana remembered vaguely that she had seen the lanky green haired student, but she never really bothered to remember much else.

Yamaguchi took a deep breath before he threw the ball up in an arc. He slowly took a few paces before he jumped forward and tapped the ball causing it to go over the net without any spin.

It was a jump float serve.

Yana received a lot of different serves in her lifetime, but jump floaters were one of her least favorites. They were unpredictable and definitely were not fun to receive. At this point she considered putting any and all jump serves into her list of 'dislikes'.

\------

The first serve flew right into Kyoutani. He bent down and forward to pass the ball before it suddenly changed trajectory. Instead of hitting his forearms the ball bounced off his shoulder and fell to the ground.

“Twenty-four to twenty.” The match point was still to Aoba Johsai but with a new type of serve they couldn’t afford to be sloppy. They may be in the lead, but no one was really sure how the set would play out until the end.

\-------

Yana gripped her pen tightly, in modern-day volleyball, the ideal win for a team would be twenty-five to zero, with all the points from multiple service aces. The serve was the only attack that wouldn’t be hindered by a blockers’ wall. Yana crossed her fingers as another serve was sent the team’s way.

\-------

Hanamaki put his hands up and received the ball with an overhand pass, as long as Aoba Johsai got the point, they would win the set.

No sooner than Oikawa had touched the ball did he release it back into the air again. “Kindaichi!”

With no more prompting needed Kindaichi jumped up without the fear of the ball being suddenly stolen from him, he slammed down as hard as she could just before the blockers could reach. Instead of hearing the ball hit the ground it was brought back up again by Yamaguchi.

Karasuno was quick to assemble a five man attack as Kageyama tossed the ball up.

Aoba Johsai had spread their block a little too thin as Asahi slammed the ball over to their side. “I got it!” Watari yelled out and ran to the right to receive the particularly nasty spike. “Oikawa!”

Albeit a little shaky, the ball landed back to Oikawa’s fingertips. Without saying a word, he immediately tossed the ball to the already running Hajime. This time the ball connected as Hajime jumped and slammed the ball down with all his worth.

The referee blew his whistle. “Second set end. Winner, Aoba Johsai”

\--------

Yana continuously shuffled around the teal magnets on the magnetic whiteboard trying to plan different set ups. This was the final set. The final round. It was a feeling that was hard to describe. It was a mixture of dread and excitement. Both sides were highly skilled and neither team had the slightest intention of losing the game.

“Hey guys…”

The team looked at Yana. They all knew without any words spoken what was being conveyed.

The students huddled up. “We are a really strong team.” Yana hummed proudly before her focus rivaled that of her other teammates. No matter the outcome of this match, both Aoba Johsai and Karasuno would continue to play on in the future. But for the third years, this was their final tournament. “Seijoh! Rule the court!”

“YEAHHH!!” 

The whistle seemed to go on longer than usual as the referee announced the start of the final set.

\--------

It was Aoba Johsai’s turn to serve first. Oikawa picked up the ball and spun it a few times in his hands. _We won’t let you win so easily._ Oikawa tossed the ball up with a spin and ran forward with it. He crouched just a little to jump up. Oikawa pulled his arm back and swung forward with as much power he could put into it.

He was going to get the first point for his team.

Oikawa landed with a hard thump just as the ball spun out of Asahi’s receive.

“First point goes to Aoba Johsai”


	55. The Final Play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yahaba's power move  
> Results of the match

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thanks to the guy who explained the word 'many' to me. It means a lot.
> 
> Happy reading!

The sounds of squeaking shoes, bouncing volleyballs and scattered cheers were as always overwhelmingly loud. But at this moment in time Yana heard none of that. She paid no mind to her surroundings as she found herself engrossed in the game before her. All she could hear was the whistle and the call outs on the court.

At first, the set seemed to be going in Aoba Johsai’s favor until Tanaka managed to rile up Kyoutani. Yana stood up to signal a member change. At this rate Kyoutani would hinder the team more than help.

“Aoba Johsai member change, #16 out, #13 in.”

Yana sent in Kunimi and gave him a thumbs up in encouragement. Yana focused her attention on Kyoutani as he passed the bench. Before she could say anything, Coach Irihata spoke up first. “If you want to go back on court you have to calm down first.”

Kyoutani surprisingly didn’t say anything back and instead grit his teeth and walked back to the warmup box. He didn’t have anything to say for his actions, because even he knew that for the past few points he had been repeatedly blocked.

Yana had wanted to say more but he walked away before she could even attempt to. She turned back to face the game.

“You dug your own grave by letting the opponent’s provocations get to your head. That’s a real shame.”

Yana furrowed her eyebrows as she tuned into the conversation but didn’t turn around. _Is that Yahaba?_ Yana heard a very irritated growl followed by words that almost sounded like a grunt.

“Shut up.”

Yana suddenly froze, she knew exactly who owned that voice. Which only meant one thing. Yahaba was giving a lecture, and to Kyoutani no less. Honestly, she expected things to go downhill very fast.

“There are plenty of other people who are dissatisfied with this situation. Myself included. How is it that someone who cares so little and causes conflict can easily get a spot on court.” Yahaba paused. For the first time he looked away from the match and at Kyoutani directly. “Someone who can help the team win will be put on court. It’s as simple as that. Right now, you have been chosen, so go out there and accomplish what you need to.”

Yana wasn’t quite sure what to make of his thoughts. They weren’t bad, that’s for sure. In fact, they were surprisingly insightful. _Perhaps it will be fine after all._

“Well, this was all just for show. To look like a mature, understanding teammate.” Yahaba slammed Kyoutani into the door and held him still by the collar of his shirt. “Listen up. This is a very important moment for the third years, if you dare go out there without the conviction to actually win… I won’t let it slide.” Yahaba’s voice was low as he glared at Kyoutani dead in the eye.

Yana turned around to the sound and was mid-way through getting up to stop the very real possibility of a fight when the coach shook his head. “Let them sort it out.”

Yana obediently sat down still worried for her teammates. She strained her ears to try and hear the last part of Yahaba’s power move.

“As long as you are on the court, you are on a team.” Yahaba released him and turned back to watch the game. “Please. Lend us some of your strength.”

Yana was the only third year who heard Yahaba’s speech. The intensity of Yahaba’s words hit hard. It was surprisingly out of character compared to his usual carefree self. But at the same time, it was reassuring. Even Yahaba himself knew the importance of this match and felt it just as much as the third years did.

The next time they sent Kyoutani back into the match, even Yana could tell that he was nervous. It was the first time any of the team had seen that expression on his face. Much to Yana’s surprise and relief, Kyoutani was actively trying to sync with the team.

Within the span of a few minutes the game had suddenly changed pace once more. Yana watched as both teams desperately worked to keep the ball in the air. The number of dives, blocks and spikes in one rally were a testament to the determination and conviction both teams exuded. Everyone wanted to win.

One side switch, four member changes, two pinch servers and one timeout later, the game was tied at twenty-three to twenty-three.

There were seemingly miracle plays during the game from both sides of the court which kept the score even. “Come on, come on…we’re almost there.” Yana scrunched her eyes shut for a moment with her hands clasped tightly around the pen. They were so, so close it was almost painful. One point at a time, each team had been frantically trying to gain the lead.

The longer the match went on the more Yana’s nerves were frayed. She had dropped her pen three times throughout the last set as she felt the pounding in her chest. Her face was rigid with tension as the air felt soupy and thick. It was hard to breathe. Yana was terrified of how the match would end.

\-----

Oikawa held up the ball. It was his turn to serve. A few paces, a spinning toss, a leap and an impossibly hard swing sent the ball flying into the ground on Karasuno’s side of the court. Despite the intense pressure Oikawa was able to pull out a serve that was without a doubt the best serve of the day.

“Aoba Johsai, match point” The team cheered as they reached match point first. All it took was one more. Just a single point.

The long whistle from the referee interrupted the celebration. “Karasuno, timeout.”

The timeout seemed to last for an eternity, but only a few minutes had passed. Yana tried to keep her nervousness under control so as to not let it rub off on the team. There was a tense silence as everyone collected themselves. There was no need for additional words when everyone was already on the same page. The whistle blew again.

Yana gave them all a firm pat on the back as they trailed back onto the court. “Do your best.”

The team scoffed and grinned, “Of course.”

\-----

Oikawa sent another powerful serve over, this time it was stopped by Sawamura. He rolled back a couple times but scrambled to get back into position just in time to see Asahi spike the ball and break through a two-person block. The score was now twenty-four to twenty-four.

Karasuno switched Sugawara in. Aoba Johsai knew that would mean some obnoxiously hard balls to receive, not in terms of power or speed, but in placement. The ball was received by Hajime which kept him in out of position and unable to attack.

Oikawa tapped the ball up into a set. Despite the fatigue it was still the perfect arc to hit.

Hanamaki ran from the back line and leapt up to spike the ball at the highest point. The ball hit the white stripe of the net and bounced over the blockers. _Drop. Please drop._

Just before the ball hit the floor Sugawara dived forward and saved it. “Kageyama!”

Kageyama received the ball in setting position before he changed it to a dump last minute.

It was now twenty-five to twenty-four, it was Karasuno’s match point.

\------

Yana’s mouth ran dry. She felt as if her brain was filled with static, either firing off a million unhelpful thoughts at once or offering nothing at all.

\-----

Hajime was ready for the serve this time and sent it over to Oikawa. “Mad Dog!”

The ball found itself in Kyoutani’s hand at its ideal point as he swung in a clean arc down.

Tanaka hastily managed to receive the ball with his head. He paid no mind to the stinging sensation as he watched it fly over the court. Kageyama switched positions with Sugawara and allowed him to set the ball to Asahi for a back attack.

Hanamaki dived in a last-ditch effort to save the ball. While the receive was successful, the ball flew out of the court.

\------

Yana wasn’t sure when she stood up, but her ears began to ring, and her heart was pounding so hard she feared that it might jump out of her chest. She couldn’t hear anything. Not even her own shouting voice.

\------

Oikawa chased after the ball carrying all the hopes of the team with him. Wordlessly he pointed back at the court. Oikawa leapt up and set the ball midair from the outside of the court, he tumbled and winced as he felt pain spark through his right knee. Oikawa clambered to his feet and dragged himself back on court.

The ball went right to Hajime on the left side of the court. Years of working together and hours of relentless practice placed the ball at the perfect height for Hajime’s spike. Hajime hit the ball with all his worth onto Karasuno’s side of the court.

\-----

Yana couldn’t hear her own voice, but she knew that it was hoarse. There was a glossy sheen in her eyes as her unnecessary thoughts scattered leaving only one feeling. Everything depended on this last rally.

\-----

“Got it!” Tanaka yelled as the ball soared back over to Aoba Johsai’s side, he skidded away from the momentum onto the back of the court. “Free ball!”

Asahi ran as far left as he could and sent the ball flying down.

Watari dived and just managed to slide his hand under the ball to keep it up. The receive spun into the net. “Kyoutani!”

Kyoutani sidestepped to save the ball and sent it tumbling over the net.

“Give it to me!” Hinata was already in the air waiting for Kageyama, and in a show of full trust he swung his arm down.

\-----

The ball dropped and suddenly Yana could hear everything again. She reeled from the sudden influx of cheers.

“End of match! Winner, Karasuno High School” The referee blew a long high-pitched whistle to signal the game.

Both teams lined up and shook hands before they returned to their respective benches. Yana blinked a few times to try get the tears out of her eyes. Yana’s mind flashed with things she felt she should have done, coupled with the heavy weight of defeat. She bit her bottom lip not knowing what to say next. Every word she could think of seemed inadequate, like it didn’t bring justice to everyone’s combined efforts.

“No matter what I say, the result wont change. I can’t make your regrets disappear.” Coach Irihata stood proudly amongst his students knowing they played to their fullest potential. “It’s natural to have plenty of regrets in this situation.”

Yana could barely even look up as tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks and dripped from her chin, she was far too spent to cry out or wail, but instead she stood as still as a statue as the magnitude of the loss swept over the team.

“I do want to say one thing. You all played well.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are at the homestretch now!


	56. For the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shoulda come to Shiratorizawa  
> The third year student's last hurrah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recently, I've tried to make a car without wheels.  
> I've been working on it tirelessly. 
> 
> Enjoy!

The match had ended soundly as everyone began to pack up in silence, some tears were dried, and others continued to cry. “I'm just going to wash my face real fast.” Yana managed to mumble through her sniffling. It had been a good five minutes before she was able to stop her crying. Yana already knew that she was probably going to cry again later that day but at the very least she wanted to clean up little for the bus ride home.

\------

“…Because of that insignificant pride of yours.”

“Are you saying that if I had picked Shiratorizawa over Aoba Johsai, we would have won? There is no such thing as a team that always has guaranteed victories.”

Yana was going to ignore the conversation before she heard Oikawa speak. She hadn’t heard the second voice before but from what she could gather from past information, Oikawa was probably talking to Ushijima.

Ushijima’s tone of voice didn’t change. “Right now, isn’t the place I am at the strongest?”

Oikawa clicked his tongue and scoffed. “You’re still the same. You’re so confident to the point where it’s ridiculous.” Oikawa’s voice suddenly changed out of his childish banter. “Listen, Ushijima. I have never once thought that I made a wrong choice by coming to Aoba Johsai. My volleyball career is far from over.”

Yana couldn’t see it, but she could already tell Oikawa had a horribly proud grin on his face as he declared his goal.

“This ‘insignificant pride’ of mine? You better remember it.”

Ushijima didn’t respond so instead Oikawa continued to talk.

“Oh, and if you keep only focusing on me, you’ll be surpassed one day when you least expect it. Little Tobio-chan, he isn’t smart at all, and he is absolutely no match for me. However, he’s not alone right now and he’s really strong.” Oikawa shrugged and began to walk away. “Together, even a pack of crows can kill an enormous white eagle.”

Yana waited for Oikawa to pass the corner before she waved to him. “Hey. You were veeeeeeerrryyyy cool back there.” Yana teased.

Oikawa felt heat rise to his face as he pouted. “How much did you hear?”

Yana ran up to walk beside him. “Only the really edgy part about the eagles.” She held his hand and paused. The smile was still on her face albeit a little shaky. She gave him a tight hug. “You guys really played your best out there.”

\--------

“Have you seen Yana and Oikawa?” Hajime picked his bag up and the other two bags at his feet.

Matsukawa looked around, “She went to wash her face.”

“Alone!?”

“Yeah?” Matsukawa furrowed his eyebrows not really understanding what the problem was. It took him a good few seconds before the realization dawned on him. Yana had no sense of direction and she had a habit of wandering off to odd places. “Do you think she got lost?”

“She definitely got lost.” Hanamaki sighed. “We can call them though, right?”

“Yeah.” Hajime pulled out his phone and called Oikawa. “Trashykawa, where are you?”

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----LATER THAT EVENING-----**

The team had gone to eat out at a ramen place as either a consolation prize or just because they were hungry. Oikawa alone had eaten far too many bowls that it was a wonder that he didn’t feel sick afterwards.

“Um, we’ll take our leave now.” Yana and the rest of the third years waved goodbye and goodnight to the second and first years. She spoke loud enough to cover up the string of curses Oikawa was spewing now that he didn’t have noodles in his mouth.

“See you later.”

\-------

“Hajime, you’ll get wrinkles early if you keep glaring at the floor like that” Yana gently bumped her cousin’s shoulder.

“I know, dammit!”

“Sawamura’s receives, Baldy’s follows, Goatee’s spikes, Watacchi’s receives, Mad Dog-chan’s follows, Tobio-chan’s direct attacks, and Kindaichi’s blocks… Everyone was giving more than one hundred percent back there.” Oikawa stopped and turned to face all the third years trailing after him. “And Iwa-chan. You should praise yourself for hitting that set with absolutely perfect timing.”

Yana pursed her lips; she knew what was coming next.

Hajime raised his voice to a shout. “That’s what pisses me off! Both the toss and my timing were perfect!”

Oikawa returned his volume in kind, “Damn straight! But you should yell at me more for not being able to get the last ball, even though I reacted to it! I'm way more pissed off!”

Yana threw one arm over Hajime and the other arm over Oikawa. Due to the almost comical height difference both boys were pulled down into a slouch. “Yes, yes we get it. Both of you are idiots.”

Hanamaki snorted in an attempt to hold back his laughter.

“Why are you both competing over this?” Matsukawa shrugged.

“Exactly!” Yana looked up to find them all at the school gym. “Uh. Weren’t we going home?”

“We could play a round or two.” Sawauchi suggested.

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----FIVE ROUNDS LATER-----**

“I’m going to puke up my ramen” Hanamaki panted.

“And my sides hurt” Hajime added, equally as tired.

Matsukawa nodded in agreement. “We should have grabbed some of the first or second years.”

Yana held up her hand in a stop motion. “No, no. Let them rest. It’s four on four. It’s ok.” She had joined the game to make it even. She originally had no desire to play but now that she was on the court she didn’t want to stop.

“Nope, make that three on four. I’m out.” Shido sat on the ground wheezing. “I wanna throw up.”

The team had decided on one last round making it a three on four. It was just one round so they decided on rock-paper-scissors to decide the teams.

“Whaa~ I'm on the same team as both Iwaizumis’!” Oikawa gushed like a fangirl and fanned himself.

Hajime tried to hold back his grin; Oikawa’s fangirl impression was pretty good this time round. “What a horrible outcome to be on the same team as both of you.”

Yana on the other hand just accepted the humor and laughed with the rest of the team. “Living the dream.”

\------

Hanamaki was the first to serve.

The ball went over the net rather unceremoniously which allowed Yana to easily _**bump**_ the ball up to Oikawa.

Oikawa was relieved it was a clean arc and **_set_** the ball over to Hajime’s already jumping figure.

Hajime pulled his arm back and hit the ball as hard as he could to **_spike_** it down.

In a rather surprising burst of energy Matsukawa jumped up and blocked the ball. “I think not.”

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER THE MATCH-----**

All the third years were dead tired by the time they began to clean up. What started as ‘one match’ led up to a grand total of three and a half hours of continuous playing. Yana collected the balls and went to the storeroom to push the cart back in.

“Hey, do you all have a sec?” Oikawa walked up to the group with an unusually serious tone.

“Don’t do it! We are trying to end this on a good note!” Hanamaki shouted. “Let’s just let everything end peacefully!”

Yana peeked out of the storeroom and made her way back to the group.

“Shut up!” Oikawa took a deep breath and yelled at the top of his lungs. “THANK YOU FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS!” At first there was silence before the entire team burst out in tears.

Yana stopped walking. She wasn’t too far away, but she was far enough to watch from the side. She didn’t want to interrupt the moment.

The members tried to wipe away their tears but eventually some gave up and settled to hiding their faces in their shirts. “T-that’s why, I told you not to...” Hanamaki sniffled and forced his words out.

“Yana-chan, I see you there” Oikawa sniffled. “Why are you so far?”

“Yeah, you gotta cry with us.” Matsukawa’s words were barely understandable from in his shirt.

“O-oh, I mean I wasn’t here for the full three years and you were all having a moment I didn’t want to interrupt.” Yana slowly inched forward so she could hear the other members better over their own crying.

“You are an idiot.” Hajime furiously tried to wipe his own tears. Then pulled everyone into a group hug, Yana included.

**_-_ ** **\----ON THE WAY HOME-----**

After cleaning up Yana had left the gym earlier than everyone else claiming that she had some ‘important stuff’ to do. Which left Oikawa and Hajime to walk home alone together.

\-------

Yana sighed and sat on the swings in a nearby park. She figured that Oikawa and Hajime had something to say to each other without anyone else present. Yana did consider just actually going right home but decided against it once she looked up at the sky. It was a clear night and there were countless stars in the sky. She zipped up her jacket. Apart from the slight chill it was a good night out. Yana was so engrossed in the glittering stars in the sky that she almost didn’t hear the footsteps behind her.

“Hasn’t this happened before?”

Yana smiled and turned to face Oikawa. “I think it has.” The pair sat in comfortable silence for a while as they looked back up at the stars. “Did you talk to Hajime?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad.” It had been almost an entire year since she moved out to the country. Now she had finally grown accustomed to the bright glimmering of the stars above her.

Oikawa looked down from the sky and to Yana. “What are you going to do when you graduate?”

Yana almost fell off her swing. “Graduation!? We still haven’t even presented our alien project yet.” She wasn’t really expecting the question, but she would be lying if she said that she wasn’t thinking about it. Over the course of the year she had finally decided on what she wanted to do in life.

“I’m going to Tokyo.” Yana pursed her lips. There was no gentle way to put it.

There was a long pause where both parties didn’t know what to say.

Oikawa nodded then smiled. “We’ll see each other again.”


	57. Aliens and Spaceships

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five Years Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent. 
> 
> Happy Reading!

Yana hopped off the train. She was back in Tokyo.

“Yana!” Kuroo and Kenma waved her over to get her attention.

Yana grinned and pulled them both into a hug. “I’m back!” After the trio successfully hugged things out they released each other and started walking. Kuroo took one of Yana’s suitcases and Kenma took the other.

“How’d the project go?”

Yana groaned and shifted her backpack to a better position.

“That bad?” Kenma looked up rather interested.

“Naturally, we didn’t manage to convince anyone. I mean, yeah we still got full marks on it, but you know.” Yana pouted. “I would have liked someone to at least humor the idea.”

“Oh? Do you believe in aliens now?” Kenma teased with a smirk on his face. He had a feeling that she might have ended up coming back with a tinfoil hat. Considering it was a year-long project he wouldn’t put it past her. Much to both his -and Kuroo’s- relief she didn’t go too far down the rabbit hole.

“Not at all!” Heat rose to Yana’s face as she vehemently denied his question. There was absolutely no way on earth or out of earth for that matter, that she would ever believe in aliens.

“Whatever you say shortstop.” Kuroo shrugged noncommittally. “You can deny it all you want but I know.

Yana pouted and deflected the comment. After a few minutes of pleasant chatter and walking she gasped. “Oh my goodness! I forgot to tell you. remember Aiko and Rini?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, during the graduation ceremony, Aiko asked Rini to be his girlfriend! I was actually surprised that he finally got the memo. Rini told me that since they were going to the same college, she would still try win his heart, so when it was Aiko who finally asked her to be his girlfriend my soul just. Oh, it was so cute.”

Kuroo and Kenma glanced at each other. Prior to meeting up with Yana they had a game of rock-paper-scissors to see who would be the one to ask. Kuroo was the loser. “So, speaking of relationships. What about you and your boyfriend?”

Yana willed herself to keep walking as she looked down at her feet. “Well you see, I-I uh.” Yana pursed her lips, the bright mood from before had dampened to a much sadder one.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” Kenma bumped her shoulder with his gently. “You can tell us in time.”

**_-_ ** **\----FIVE YEARS LATER IN RIO-----**

Oikawa’s eyes widened as his gaze landed on a familiar head of orange hair. He was just out walking by the beach and he never expected to see someone he knew from Japan. “Is this for real?”

“The Grand King!?”

“Photos, now.” Oikawa and Hinata immediately stuck themselves together and look a rather intense looking selfie. Once the pair had sent them out to their respective friends Hinata was the first to speak.

“What are you doing here Gr-Oikawa?!”

“That’s my line.”

Hinata’s enthusiasm levels rose even higher. “I'm here to train using beach volleyball!”

Oikawa was taken aback for a moment before he began to laugh. “You really are a crazy kid sometimes, Shrimpy.” Oikawa ruffled his hair back. “Beach though, huh? I think I can see what you’re getting at.”

“Now, what about you? What brings you here?”

“I’m playing in the Argentine League right now. Well, that and something else…”

Hinata’s eyes glimmered with excitement. “You’re practically next door! But, why Argentina? You seem like you’d go to Italy or something like that.”

Oikawa made finger guns at Hinata “Right?! I totally get it” he slicked his brown hair back dramatically. His hair was a fair bit shorter now, so it reduced the dramatic flair of the action, but there was a little bit of flair left. “I definitely would fit in perfectly in Italy. I’ve never gone there before though.”

Hinata was speechless. There were a lot of thoughts processing but that last one really threw him off.

“Can you quit making that face please?”

Hinata cleared his throat and recomposed himself. “Oikawa, let’s play volleyball together!” His stomach growled loudly and caused the pair to go silent.

Oikawa stifled his laughter, “I was actually on my way to get something to eat. Why don’t you take me someplace good?”

“There’s this delicious, healthy place that’s really cheap!”

Oikawa waved Hinata’s statement away. “Don’t worry about that. It’ll be my treat. I can do that at least.” Oikawa suddenly took out his phone and sent a quick text message. “I’m all good to go. Are you ready?”

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----AFTER DINNER-----**

“You said there was another reason for coming here. What is that reason?” Hinata sighed satisfied as he finished off the rest of his dessert. “It seemed kinda important.”

“Ok, listen up…”

**_-_ ** **\----THE NEXT AFTERNOON-----**

“Wake up! Tooru we’re late!” She sat up and tapped Oikawa gently to try and wake him up. “What happened to the alarm?!”

Oikawa pulled her back down into his arms and under the covers. “I turned it off.” He gave her a sly smirk and kissed her nose.

She blushed from the kiss and snuggled into him unable to resist the warmth. “It’s your last free day before the match.” Her voice was muffled by the blankets, but it was just loud enough for him to hear in his half-asleep state.

“Babe, we can go out tonight instead?” Oikawa held her closer trying his best to convince her not to move. “I just wanna cuddle today, pleaaseee.” He played with her hair and kissed her neck.

“But Tooru, I really like Rio and I want to sightsee with you before your match tomorrow.” She gave him her best pleading face. “Pretty please?”

He sighed in defeat. “Fine, Konpeito-chan. You win.” He would never admit but he always caved.

Yana squealed in delight, gave him a quick peck on the lips then wriggled out of bed.

Once Yana graduated high school, she followed through with her plan to go study in Tokyo. Oikawa and Yana had decided to try out long distance to see how it would all go. Of course, like any other couple it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. While studying, the pair would often visit each other back and forth so the distance didn’t seem too far away.

It had taken four years for Yana to complete her degree. As soon as she finished and had a teary goodbye to Kuroo and Kenma, she flew right over to Argentina and landed a job as a Flight Dynamics Officer - FDO for short. It was a job she never thought she would have. Planning maneuvers and monitoring trajectory for space shuttles was never really something that crossed her mind, until the senior project that is. She groaned at the memory. _That damn project._

Yana stretched and rummaged through her suitcase. “I think I left it at home.”

“Left what at home?” Oikawa was shirtless as he appeared behind her. The five years of training did magic to his body. He was a very fine specimen.

“That one sundress I really liked.”

Since living together Oikawa had found out that Yana could be surprisingly girly at times. That’s not to say she wasn’t feminine; she definitely was feminine. But he didn’t expect her to own as many dresses and clothes as she did.

Yana pulled out a different outfit and decided to put that on instead. She wore washed out blue jean shorts which were high waisted with sailor buttons. A long tasseled necklace sat over her white V-neck tank top. On top of that, she wore a red and white oversized Hawaiian shirt that she left unbuttoned.

“You look like a tourist.” Oikawa deadpanned from behind her.

“A cute tourist!” Yana protested as she slipped on her wedges. “Besides what about you? We match.” She stuck her tongue out at him and finished tying her hair in a low messy bun.

“Eh, touché.” Like Yana, Oikawa was wearing a similar style. A red and white Hawaiian shirt left unbuttoned over a white V-neck t-shirt, the only difference of course being his khaki shorts, and sandals. He left his sunglasses hanging on his shirt collar. “I guess we are tourists together then.”

The pair were about to leave the hotel before Oikawa ran back in. “Give me a sec!” He quickly grabbed her hat from the room and slipped a small box in his pocket. He hastily came back out to join Yana. “You can’t forget your hat.” He carefully placed the straw hat on Yana’s head trying not to mess up her hair. “Now you look like a very cute tourist.”

****

****

**_-_ ** **\----SOME HOURS LATER-----**

Yana grinned as she took one last picture with Oikawa at Ipanema. “I think out of all the places that we have visited today; this is my favorite.” It was already sunset, but the beach was as beautiful as ever. A long arching expanse of soft white sand and rolling waves reflected the different hues of red, orange and yellow. The beach was bordered by a well-organized grid of shops, cafes and restaurants which remained lively even though the day was waning.

They walked through the beach hand in hand, their fingers intertwined. Yana hummed quietly as she recalled all their memories together. Every time he held her close in his arms it was like he was untying all her knots and ridding her of all her worries - if just for a moment. The warmth between them was something she had grown so accustomed to and enjoyed.

\------

Oikawa used his free hand to fiddle with the little box inside his pocket. _You can do this! It’s the perfect time and place! This is the moment!_ Oikawa cheered himself on. He was so nervous that he could feel his heart practically leap out of his chest. “Yana.”

“Hm?”

Oikawa let go of her hand as he started his rant and over exaggerated gestures. “So, I was thinking. The phrase ‘till death do us part’ is pretty morbid to me. I want the fairytale. The ‘and they lived happily ever after.’ I mean, what’s wrong with that? Why would I like to start a life of love thinking about death?”

Yana nodded along, Oikawa would occasionally go off on a rant about random things ranging from volleyball to aliens and apparently to wedding vows. “That is a fair point. But there isn’t such thing as a perfect love. Nor a perfect love story.”

“Well I think, I would like a love that will endure through this life and the beyond.” Oikawa took a silent breath in and got down on one knee. “Yana”

Yana turned around to face him. Her eyes widened and her hands covered her mouth in shock.

“I don’t want to say, ‘till death do us part’ because If I had a thousand lifetimes, I’d want them all to be with you.” Oikawa gave her a slightly roguish smile as he held up the ring. “Yana. Will you marry me?” His face was equally as pink as hers as he looked up at her.

An uncontrollable smile blossomed on Yana’s face as her eyes shone in a way that only deep happiness could bring. She nodded as tears started to form. Falling in love was a story she never wanted to end. She hoped to fall more and more in love with this man. “Yes! Yes, as many times over as you want.” The man she had just agreed to marry.

Yana ran forward into a hug and caused them both to fall down on the soft sand. In each other’s embrace the world stopped still on its axis. There was no time, no wind, no rain. Her face warmed as she lightly placed a kiss on his lips. “I love you.”

Oikawa held her closer to take another kiss from her, this time deeper than a simple peck. He felt like he was walking on air. This kiss seemed so much more magical, the way their lips interlocked, it was warmer and softer than all the times before. This time the kiss really did feel like it was one from the movies. It was heartfelt and slow and sent shivers down his back. He had dreamed of this moment for so long, but this kiss was so much better in reality than his daydreams.

They eventually parted and he saw her eyes sparkle and lips curve up into a smile that mirrored his own. Oikawa closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers. “I love you more than anything in the universe and outside of it; including aliens.”

_**~FIN** _


	58. For the Explorers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey there!

Damn. It’s actually all completed.

In writing this I've learned way too much about volleyball and watched way too many videos that it’s coming up on my recommended list on YouTube. Some of the videos are really, really cool.

Unfortunately, I've turned into a fan of Yūji Nishida. Very talented volleyball player. He gives me some very Ushijima vibes and I honestly wasn’t a fan of it at first. But then like, this guy, he is just so good it’s mind boggling.

But I digress. I wasn’t really expecting to write a Haikyuu fic but then like, I did. Just like my previous story I did say I was planning on only writing up to maybe 30 chapters. Apparently, I'm very bad at estimating because uh, this was an entire 58 chapters. Maybe writing short fics isn’t for me.

Speaking of other fics – do you like BNHA/MHA? Do you like Shinsou? What about Dabi? Well, I gotchu!

[BNHA FIC](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23099755/chapters/55265635) -it’s another OC insert! Reaches up to 101 chapters and it splits into two endings! Isn’t that just great?

Lol.

No, but really – come give it a shot :D

Anyway, do you want to read more stuff? Well, now you can!

I’ve already started writing my next fic. Who could it be? Come to Shiratorizawa to find out!

It’ll be another OC insert because I can’t write reader inserts for the life of me. It’ll probably be posted in a week or two. Once I post it, I’ll leave a link right here [(Come to Shiratorizawa)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26091622/chapters/63464722#main)

EDIT: It's finally posted!

Anyway. Thank you for continuing to read and for making it this far and most of all giving this fic a chance! I know OC inserts aren’t very popular compared to the other stuff. So y’all are awesome. I really hope you enjoyed reading the fic and learning shitty one liners and facts in the beginning notes. Thank you for the kudos, comments, subs and bookmarks! <3

Feel free to Q&A in comments if you have any or you can just DM me. (via insta or discord)

Anyway, that’s pretty much it,

Lots of love Piggycat <3 [roast_pork_be_sizzling](https://www.instagram.com/roast_pork_be_sizzling/)

Stay safe!

\-------------------

“Never regret your choices.”

“Follow and chase your dreams.”

“If people don’t approve or say it’s unrealistic then just push harder, prove them wrong.”

“Take care of yourself, not just physically but mentally too.”

“If you feel like everything is hopeless, don’t give up.”

“Realize your own worth.”

“Be kind to yourself.”

“Hard work and dedication will pay off”

“If you are scared of being tossed to the side, never forget…”

“There are people who will always love and support you.”

“If you ever think your dream is too hard, just remember…”

“There is someone out there making crop circles”

“Never stop reaching for the stars.”

  * “For the Explorers”



**_-Bump, Set, Spike ~2020_ **

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Best Offense is a Good Defense](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25439038) by [CaptainAsteria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainAsteria/pseuds/CaptainAsteria)




End file.
